Nina Simone - Live at the Olympia, Paris - Part 1.

Format:

Video

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Blues.

United States and Canada.

Vocal Jazz.

African Americans.

Local Subjects:

Blues.

United States and Canada.

Vocal Jazz.

African Americans.

Genre:

Performance

Physical Description:

1 online resource (40 minutes)

Place of Publication:

Paris, Ile-de-France : Qwest TV, 1970.

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

These two videos present Nina Simone, the High Priestess of Soul, in 1970 at the Olympia in Paris at a fragile period of her career. Unlike most of the top-line jazz vocalists at the time, she had spent much of the 1960s as a civil rights activist on stage, melding jazz, blues, pop and classical styles. One of the most influential singers of the 20th century, Simone both inspired and confounded her listeners, including her poet friend Maya Angelou who said in 1970, “She is loved or feared, adored or disliked, but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation.” At the Olympia, Simone was in ebullient, likeable shape, wowing the audience with her distinctive contralto vocals and steady piano rhythmic support. Included in her first set were the upbeat, joyful tune “In the Morning,” the protest of racial inequality “Backlash Blues” written by her Harlem Renaissance friend and poet Langston Hughes, and finishing the set with Dr. Billy Taylor’s painfully powerful “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free,” with Simone leaving her piano seat to get the crowd to help her sing along. Part 2 of the show features Simone covering in deep sadness “The Other Woman,” from her 1968 release by the same name, complete with a three-woman backup choir. Troubled for much of her career by the music industry injustice and what turned out to be bipolar illness, Simone left the U.S. later that year. This show marks a high point in her career before a bitter period where she was fully expressing the blues—not the blues of old, but a more modern moan that showed the depth of her emotion. Dan Ouellette

Notes:

Performed Olympia Hall

Title from resource description page (viewed July 15, 2024).