To Be Free Nina Simone

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CD - Bonus DVD

  • Release Date: 09/30/2008
  • 4 Disc Set
  • Sales Rank: 15,888
  • Label: SONY LEGACY
  • UPC: 886971100921

Listener Rating: (6 ratings)

Detailed Rating: "Liner Notes" See All

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  • Overview
  • Tracks
  • Editorial Reviews
  • Customer Reviews
  • Details & Credits
Track List
Click on LISTEN or link to hear an audio clip.
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To Be Free

Disc 1
1LISTENMood Indigo 4:02
2LISTENI Loves You, Porgy 4:10
3LISTENMy Baby Just Cares for Me 3:38
4LISTENNobody Knows You When You're Down and Out 2:39
5LISTENYou Can Have Him Live 5:56
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Disc 2
1LISTENMississippi Goddam Live 6:55
2LISTENIn the Morning 2:43
3LISTENAin't Got No -- I Got Life Alternate Version 2:58
4LISTENDo What You Gotta Do 3:01
5LISTENSeems I'm Never Tired Loving You 3:02
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Disc 3
1LISTENNo Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed Live / previously unreleased 4:51
2LISTENJust Like a Woman 4:52
3LISTENHere Comes the Sun 3:34
4LISTENTanywey previously unreleased 3:27
5LISTENFunkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter Live 5:17
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Disc 4
1Ain't Got No -- I Got Life DVD
2Pirate Jenny DVD
3Don't Pay Them No Mind DVD
4Milestones DVD / Instrumental
5Go to Hell DVD
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About this Artist

Editorial Reviews

There's no question that Nina Simone is richly deserving of a three-CD (plus one DVD), 51-song box set such as To Be Free. From the late '50s until her death, she was one of the great unclassifiable pop singers of the 20th century, and if her voluminous recording career was erratic, the first 15 years at any rate had many highlights. Any complaint about this particular package has more to do with the balance of eras represented than the quality of the contents, which is generally very good. If one is to criticize, however, it's that it does seem heavily weighted toward her 1967-1973 recordings for RCA, which take up about two-thirds of the three audio discs. Perhaps that's because it's on the RCA/Legacy label, but certainly a good case could be made that her pre-1967 recordings for a variety of other companies (most often Philips) were worthy of greater representation. To focus on the positives, however, most of disc one does include strong pre-RCA tracks from the first decade of her recording career, including some of her best-known classics of the time, like "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," "See-Line Woman," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Four Women." While the RCA era arguably saw her move too much into pop-oriented production on occasion and too many covers of pop/rock hits, the selections from that era are chosen with intelligence, including a good number of live tracks. The two post-1973 cuts -- one from 1978 and one from her final proper album, 1993's A Single Woman -- seem like afterthoughts to ensure that most of her career was covered in some way, but that's justifiable considering that the last three decades of her life saw little in the way of noteworthy recordings.

Though there's not much in the way of rarities, the set also does contain half a dozen previously unreleased live tracks of merit; four songs from the hard-to-find album A Very Rare Evening, recorded live in Germany in April 1969; and a couple (a live cover of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" and an alternate version of "Ain't Got No -- I Got Life") that make their first U.S. appearance. The most tantalizing item for serious Simone fans is the DVD of a 1970 television special, though it turns out to be a little less exciting than one might have hoped. Lasting just 23 minutes, it intersperses scenes of her recording in the studio and performing on-stage (most of the songs being fragments, highlighted by a complete live version of "Go to Hell") with interview snippets in which Simone offers basic comments on the rewards and difficulties of being a creative musician. Still, in all this is a very good box set illustrating Simone's facility at jumping between and blending numerous genres, including soul, pop, rock, jazz, Broadway, classical, and even (on the previously unissued 1973 live performance "Nina") world fusion music of sorts with backing by sitar and kalimba. Just don't necessarily take it as a summation of all her greatest work, with much more from the pre-1967 period in particular thankfully available to investigate on other CDs. Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Customer Reviews

  • Listener Rating:
  • Ratings: 6Reviews: 2

Fantastic Ninaby tonyathamestaylor

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February 11, 2009: I highly recommend "To Be Free." The interview on the accompanying DVD is the jewel of this compilation. During this interview, one relates to Nina as she listens, sings, shares, laughs, and dances. She is a lady whose body of work reveals her priorities: social change and equity. Wow...an incredible talent who travailed through unjust social constructs to make a beautiful contribution to humanity. To think of Nina is to think of artistry. This compilation serves as a textbook that can benefit any artist. The accompanying notes are brief and informative. And, well, the music "sings" for itself. Bravo!

I Also Recommend: Kind of Blue: 50th Anniversary Collector's Edition, Southern Horrors and Other Writings: The Anti-Lynching Campaign of Ida B. Wells, 1892-1900, W. E. B. Dobois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919, The Souls of Black Folk, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave (Barnes & Noble Classics Series).

review: Nina Simone: To Be Free: treblezine.comby AE-Bernal

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November 14, 2008: Nina Simone has recorded some of the most memorable music of the 20th century. Prolific is an understatement; Nina Simone was a virtuoso on stage and in the recording studio. Between 1957 and 1973, Simone completed 27 albums for four different record labels. Unlike her personal heroine Billie Holliday, not only could Nina sing exquisitely, she, herself was a classically trained pianist. This made her a creative force as composer and lyricist. Because of this, Nina had a musician's ear and knew how to craft classic originals and adapt famous standards of her day.

Many of these are found in the new dynamic four disc (3 CD and 1 DVD set) To Be Free. Not only is this a collection of vintage songs written and recorded by Nina Simone, this is the soundtrack to American history from an artist that is unknown by the majority of modern music fans. It is a criminal shame that Nina Simone is rarely mentioned up there with Billie Holliday, Aretha Franklin, and Patsy Cline as queens of American music.

To me she surpasses all of those incredible singers because Nina composed the majority of the music and lyrics to all her originals. And Simone came up with the arrangements of her favorite artists that she covered, like Gershwin's "I Love's You, Porgy" Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quite Pas," George Harrison's "Here Comes the Sun" and Bob Dylan's "Just like a Woman."

Although To Be Free includes live versions of "Wild is the Wind," the Langston Hughes-penned powerhouse "Backlash Blues" any my personal favorite "Who Knows Where the Times Goes." The 30 minute DVD, Nina: A Historical Perspective is a breathtaking insight inside the mind, the music and the voice of Nina Simone told in her own words.

Inside the music and film of To Be Free, you will see and hear why and how she inspired a generation of artists and bands. Thanks to Mary J. Blige, Lauren Hill, Alicia Keys, Cat Power, Bowie and Buckley, the legend of Nina Simone sings on within them, their vocal styles and covers of her originals. We must not forget the many films that have showcased Nina's voice and songs and helped introduce her music to a new generation of soulful enthusiasts. If you're a novice and searching for a place to start your education of Nina Simone look no further than To Be Free. This box set captures the beauty, power and essence of all that encompassed the artistry and myth that was Nina Simone.

Adrian Ernesto Cepeda
http://treblezine.com/reviews/2889-Nina_Simone_To_Be_Free.html