Nina Simone certainly has been a person equipped with musicianship of a very special kind. She has aspired (and certainly had the talent) to become a concert-pianist in the classical style, but due to the colour of her skin could not pursue this career. So she became a master in the jazz and soul genres, bringing in, aside to her magnificent voice and phrasing, tremendous technique on the piano. There is the story about her, that, as a young girl, when she was giving her first public concert, her parents were asked to leave the seats in the first row to have some people of white skin placed there. She refused to start to play until her parents were relocated in the first row. She is said to have stuck to that attitude during all of her life. There have been three songs in her versions on the 1000 Songs Challenge up to today. Here are five more pieces of music rendered in her incredibly musical style. The first one, a hit by the Animals and later on a disco-hit by Santa Esmeralda, has originally (in 1964) been recorded (although not written) by her. The second one is her version of "Feeling Good" from her 1965 album "I put a spell on you": the third one is "Wild is the Wind" (from her album of the same title), later recorded by David Bowie on his album "Station to Station". Mr. Jones is said to be an admirer of Miss Waymon's vocal style. Then, we have a cover-version of The Ballad of Hollis Brown, written by Rob Zimmerman, and finally, a stunning rendering of a gospel, Sinnerman, as used in the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair:
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