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Epicurus.com - Nina Simone's Finest Hour
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List Price: $11.98
Our Price: $10.99
Your Save: $ 0.99 ( 8% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0731454360425
Label: Polygram Records
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Polygram Records
Release Date: 2000-06-13
Studio: Polygram Records
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Editorial Reviews:
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Nina Simone communicates with a unique force on this Finest Hour collection, a welling, riveting power that's beyond the range of other singers. It's there whether the song is romantic or political, whimsical or sentimental, and these recordings from the 1960s demonstrate the range of material that she could make her own, from Gershwin to Jacques Brel, from Screamin' Jay Hawkins to Nat Adderley. With her own civil rights era anthems like "Mississippi Goddam" and the Brecht-Weill "Pirate Jenny," Simone commands our attention with a profoundly brooding, searing rage, while there's potent sensuality in her "Wild Is the Wind" and Willard Robison's "Don't Smoke in Bed." Whether she's accompanying herself with her spare piano or defying studio orchestras with the intensity of her performance, Simone is a special singer, her art consisting in stripping away the decorative artifice of a song to reveal a molten core beneath. --Stuart Broomer
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Great for getting your feet wet
Comment: Nina Simone's collection is as extensive as her genius; I simply did not know were to begin. This collection is a great place to begin your journey and experience her captivating lyrical style and fluctuation into dramatic performances. The finest hour gives you a good first look into her artistry and how far it stretches.
Customer Rating:
Summary: still powerful
Comment: Romantic, powerful and sexy, Nina's voice is terrific. However the 60s arrangement on some of the tracks do sound dated. Someone in the mixing room needs to separate her vocals+piano from the orchestra, bring them to the front, and reinvent the accompaniment.
Customer Rating:
Summary: after hours
Comment: nina simone's don't explain is a song that's hauntingly familiar, but yet pensive. combined with the elements of her own style of piano playing,
mournful wind instuments along with the lite touch of high hat cymbals,
the song is dark but yet compelling. as her dark voice sings as if she were lamenting, you can't help but venture further and further into
this tapestry of litany. don't explain is one of many songs on her after
hours album.
though her music may not be light and airy, nina simone evokes a lyric and worldly sense of being
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nina Simone finally returns home to North Carolina..................
Comment: ......and takes residence in my music collection.
I cannot remember ever being so pleased with a
purchase. This CD not only lives up to
its title, but it also adds further splendor and
dignity to the musical legacy of Nina Simone. Prior
to this CD, I was only remotely familiar with
Simone; mainly by virtue of commercial allusions
or literary accounts of her contributions. Also,
I had been listening to this very recording at work
through computer speakers. HOWEVER, once I heard it at
home, out loud and in surround sound, it left me with
no doubt that Nina Simone added irrefutable substance
to the trite expression: "musical genius."
One could write volumes about the voice alone. In my
opinion it was not a beautiful voice, but rather
an essential tool used toward the construction of
a solid, multi-layered musical palace. Simone's
voice is comparable to that of Maria Callas in
the opera realm: not necessarily the most beautiful,
but by far, the most capable of conveying the
emotional stance of the character/composer.
Both singers were highly aware of their
vocal instrument; proficiently utilizing
it to display the dynamics
of love/hate/joy/despair (et al.) with a frank,
virtuoso flair that not only fell pleasantly on
the ears, but also resounded brilliantly with emotional authenticity.
In the jazz realm, Nina Simone, with her majestically
agile contralto, was unsurpassable in terms of
providing color and life to a song.
In perfect conjunction with the voice is
Simone's amazing musicianship. Her classical
piano training envelopes each composition
and sells it, Donald Trump-style. The arrangements
are intelligent, never overpowering, and replete
with a unique jazz/classical hybrid. From the
opening bars of any given composition, the
listener knows that a masterwork is in the making.
I found myself alternately listening to just
the music or the voice alone. Either way,
the result is the same. Simone's style
adds that subtle element of "cool" that makes
jazz so unspeakably enjoyable.
I could also comment on her life as an activist
or as a staunch supporter of artistic freedom,
but I'll concentrate on the music for now.
Nina Simone's "Finest Hour" is a perfect addition
for longtime fans as well as a bright point of
departure for newfound admirers. A five star
rating doesn't measure even a tenth of the
greatness of this CD. Thank you, Amazon.com for
the availability of this recording
and thank you, God, for Nina Simone.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Nina Simone is very real and very Original !!!
Comment: This is one of my fav albums of all time and she is an excellent singer with a witty flair and even deeper sense for poetry.
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