Amazing Nina Simone

Nina Simone's second album finds the singer-pianist experimenting with a varied repertoire - jazz, gospel, blues and even folk. Unlike her very first album, released a few months earlier, where she was alone with her piano, The Amazing Nina Simone saw her accompanied by Bob Mersey's big band, who wrote the lush arrangements around standards such as 'Stompin' at the Savoy' and "It Might as Well Be Spring". At the start of her recording career, Nina Simone still had to fight for her artistic freedom and the choice of her songs. The versatility of this opus might seem disconcerting, but the voice, infused with the purest emotion, imposes it's strength in the midst of a musical decorum that erases her essential piano playing in favour of brass and strings in the big band spirit of the moment.