Nina Simone In Concert (Verve Acoustic Sounds Series) [LP]

🎤 Nina Simone – In Concert
(Philips Records, 1964 – Vinyl Edition)

Some artists perform. Nina Simone confronts. In Concert is a live recording that documents Simone’s transition from jazz interpreter to activist-artist. With her commanding presence, virtuosic piano work, and emotionally charged delivery, Simone turns the stage into a pulpit—speaking truth to power with elegance and fire.

The album opens with “I Loves You, Porgy”, a tender ballad that Simone had already made her own. But it quickly shifts into deeper terrain:
• “Plain Gold Ring” – haunting and restrained, a study in longing
• “Pirate Jenny” – chilling and theatrical, drawn from Brecht-Weill’s Threepenny Opera
• “Old Jim Crow” – a stark protest against segregation
• “Don’t Smoke in Bed” – melancholic and intimate
• “Go Limp” – satirical and biting
• “Mississippi Goddam” – explosive, defiant, and historically urgent

“Mississippi Goddam” is the emotional and political centerpiece—a response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the Birmingham church bombing. Simone delivers it with biting sarcasm and raw fury, turning the concert hall into a courtroom of conscience.

The production is raw and immediate. Studio monitors will reveal the full fingerprint—Simone’s pedal work, vocal dynamics, and the subtle tension between performer and audience. It’s not polished—it’s present.

Visually, the album cover is iconic: Simone in spotlight, poised between piano and microphone, framed by shadows and resolve. It’s not just a performance—it’s a reckoning.

In Concert is not just a live album—it’s a cultural document. It honors the lyric, the struggle, and the listener’s appetite for truth. It’s music that listens as deeply as it demands.