Nina Simone - Nina Simone: The Montreux Years

180-gram double LP

The Montreux Years (Limited Edition Turquoise/Yellow & White Splatter Colored Vinyl)

Nina Simone's story from the late 1960s to the '90s can be told through her legendary performances in Montreux. Taking to the Montreux stage for the first time on 16 June 1968 for the festival's second edition, Simone built a lasting relationship with Montreux Jazz Festival and its Creator and Founder Claude Nobs, which uniqueness, trust and electricity can be clearly felt on the recordings.

Simone's multi-faceted and radical story is laid bare on Nina Simone: The Montreux Years. From Nina's glorious and emotional 1968 performance to her fiery and unpredictable concert in 1976, one of the festival's most remarkable performances ever witnessed, the collection includes recordings from all of her five legendary Montreux concerts — 1968, 1976, 1981, 1987 and 1990.

Featuring rare and previously unreleased material from Claude Nobs' private collection, Nina Simone devotees worldwide will be thrilled by the inclusion of the powerful "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free," poignant and fearless "Four Women" and Simone's hauntingly beautiful performance of "Ne Me Quitte Pas." A spine-tingling version of Janis Ian's searing and potent "Stars," which Simone covered for the very first time during her 1976 Montreux performance, sits alongside her bold and electrifying reimagine of Bob Marley's ballad "No Women No Cry" in 1990.

The collection closes with the encore of Nina Simone's final Montreux Jazz Festival concert and one of Simone's most-loved and best-known recordings, the exuberant "My Baby Just Cares For Me," showcasing the deep and multidimensional facets of Simone's life and music.

Side A

1. Someone To Watch Over Me

2. Backlash Blues

3. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free

4. See-Line Woman

Side B

1. Little Girl Blue

2. Don’t Smoke in Bed

3. Stars

4. What A Little Moonlight Can Do

Side C

1. African Mailman

2. Just In Time

3. Four Women

4. No Woman No Cry

Side D

1. Liberian Calypso

2. Ne Me Quitte Pas

3. Montreux Blues

4. My Baby Just Cares for Me

Customer Reviews (5.00 Stars) 1 person(s) rated this product.

Startlingly Great Compilation Of Performances posted on 12/12/2024 5 Stars Reviewer: AnalogJ If you're a fan of Nina Simone, or you want to be introduced to her as a preformer, I can't think of a better way to start. She was often a fantastic and compelling live performer. Certainly quirky at times, she was an intense vocalist who would connect to the lyrics and make the songs her own. Moreover, she was a classically trained pianist early on and you can hear it in her technique as a player. She is the complete package, and a unique one. This is a compilation of a sampling of several years of performancse at the annual jazz festival in Montreaix. The splatter vinyl is not always the quietest. It took me two copies to get a really satisfactory one, but the vinyl is fun to look at. This set was also pressed on black vinyl. The sound is tonally rich, dynamic, and immediate.

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