live 1965 & 1969

• Recording locations: Mickery Theatre, Loenersloot, Netherlands, and Orchestra Hall, Chicago
• Recording dates: 25 December 1965 and 1969

Live 1965 & 1969 brings together two powerful radio recordings from a crucial period in Nina Simone's career. The first seven tracks were performed at the Mickery Theatre in Loenersloot, Netherlands, on Christmas Day 1965, while the remaining selections capture her at Orchestra Hall in Chicago four years later.

The Netherlands concert features Simone on piano and vocals with Rudy Stevenson on guitar and flute, Lisle Atkinson on bass and Bobby Hamilton on drums. The small ensemble leaves ample space for her commanding voice and highly individual piano playing, allowing each performance to move naturally between jazz, blues, folk, gospel and protest song.

“Brown Baby” opens the collection in a restrained but emotionally concentrated mood, followed by the increasingly dramatic “Four Women.” Bob Dylan's “The Ballad of Hollis Brown” becomes a dark, extended narrative, while “Tomorrow Is My Turn” and “Images” demonstrate Simone's ability to bring theatrical intensity to quieter material.

The 1965 set concludes with the satirical “Go Limp” and a fierce performance of “Mississippi Goddam.” Written in response to racist violence in the United States, the song became one of Simone's defining works, combining sharp political commentary with an urgent, deceptively upbeat musical setting.

The Chicago performance reflects the more openly confrontational character of Simone's work at the end of the decade. “Go to Hell,” “Backlash Blues” and “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead)” address moral hypocrisy, racial oppression and the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., while “Ain't Got No / I Got Life” transforms material from the musical Hair into an exuberant declaration of identity and survival.

Performances of “I Put a Spell on You” and “Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood” complete the programme, showing how completely Simone could reshape familiar songs through changes of phrasing, rhythm and emotional emphasis. Together, these broadcasts document both the extraordinary range of her music and the uncompromising social purpose that increasingly defined her performances during the 1960s.

Track listing:

Live at the Mickery Theatre, Loenersloot, Netherlands – 25 December 1965

1. Brown Baby – 5:29
2. Four Women – 5:24
3. The Ballad of Hollis Brown – 7:03
4. Tomorrow Is My Turn – 6:09
5. Images – 3:14
6. Go Limp – 6:35
7. Mississippi Goddam – 5:24

Live at Orchestra Hall, Chicago – 1969

8. Go to Hell – 3:25
9. Ain't Got No / I Got Life – 4:46
10. Backlash Blues – 3:32
11. I Put a Spell on You – 1:49
12. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood – 2:42
13. Why? (The King of Love Is Dead) – 6:00