Nina Simone

Latest Articles

Reimagining Porgy and Bess

The A.R.T. takes on the Gershwins' classic and prep it for Broadway
In the new production at the American Repertory Theater, directed by Diane Paulus, Messrs. Heyward and Gershwin have been reworked by two actual African-Americans: two-time Obie Award winner Diedre L. Murray and Suzan-Lori Parks, the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | August 12, 2011

Arborea sail across a fossil sea

Hearing Red
When critics say a band have a timelessness about them, people generally mean the band's music is sort of universally appealing, outside of trends or genres.
By SAM PFEIFLE | April 25, 2011

Hot summer moves

Bates Fest opens with Monica Bill Barnes
The 2010 Bates Dance Festival's first main stage performance, a concert by Monica Bill Barnes and Company, was hot — playfully theatrical, intensely human, ardently physical.
By JUNE VAIL | July 14, 2010

Bettye LaVette | Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook

Anti- (2010)
Bettye LaVette’s previous two albums had titles that required a little digging to unpack.
By MIKAEL WOOD | June 01, 2010

Jew note

First Annual Boston Jewish Music Festival, plus the Klezmatics
Defining "Jewish" music is pretty much a fool's task — not much easier than defining jazz.
By JON GARELICK | February 25, 2010

Review: Tom Russell | Blood and Candle Smoke

Shout! Factory (2009)
This LA-born troubadour with a Dustbowl voice works voodoo on his 24th studio album, conjuring ghosts of the ’60s and ’70s along with apocalyptic visions as he relates tales of gun-toting madmen and dark rifts of the heart.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 22, 2009

Levon Helm | Electric Dirt

Dirt Farmer Music/Vanguard
Helm's 2007 Dirt Farmer won the Best Traditional Folk Album Grammy for its acoustic arrangements of songs plucked from the Delta soil of the Band drummer and singer's rural Arkansas youth.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | June 23, 2009

Mixed messages

3play+ do what they wanna; Melody Gardot follows her instincts
Given the sound of its first track (which is also the title of the album), you'd have every reason to think that 3play+'s debut CD is about to plunge you into Bill Frisell–style Americana.
By JON GARELICK | June 02, 2009

Heavenly host

Antony and the Johnsons, live at Berklee Performance Center, February 22, 2009
Perhaps it's due to the delicate gentility of his demeanor, or the soft warble of his signature trill, but Antony Hegarty tends to be described in the airiest of terms.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 26, 2009

A voice from on high

The second coming of Antony and the Johnsons
On his new album The Crying Light, Antony Hegarty lifts his voice without raising it.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | February 18, 2009

Review: Let Freedom Sing! Music of the Civil Rights Movement

Time/Life (2009)
In any given Black History Month, the three-disc Let Freedom Sing: The Music of the Civil Rights Movement would be a powerful anthology.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | January 06, 2009

Review: Nina Simone - To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story

RCA/Legacy
Nina Simone was her own gospel, a sinuous force of uncompromising power and righteous beauty.
By ZETH LUNDY | December 09, 2008

Mixed grill

Scarecrow Mobius, Monique, and Morley
Dave Bryant stood among the folding chairs in the audience before Scarecrow Mobius's gig at Outpost 186 a week ago Monday night, looked at his two-deck keyboard rig, and mused, "Not pretty, but I guess it will do. I had more room at rehearsal."
By JON GARELICK | December 01, 2008

Seven Sirens

Music seen at SPACE Gallery, November 14
SPACE Gallery showcased a "Seven Sirens" all-lady lineup last Friday, in front of a packed house.
By SONYA TOMLINSON AND JEFF INGLIS | November 19, 2008

Live: Andrew Bird in Portland

Music seen at the Music Hall, October 8, 2008
For his nearly-sold-out show in Portsmouth’s Music Hall, Bird compensated for the absence of bandmates by doing, well, everything himself.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | October 16, 2008

Who brought the cool kid?

Ian MacKaye visits Tufts
“For me, punk is the new idea, always the new idea, forever the new idea. That’s why punk can never die. Because as long as there are people, there will be new ideas.”
By WILL SPITZ | April 15, 2008

Less is best

The spare science of José González
González possesses the will power and the patience to dig into each of his songs until he has exhumed its bleeding heart.
By SHARON STEEL | March 04, 2008

Finding a voice

Battleworks at the ICA
Closer inspection, however, shows a choreographer making a series of perplexing musical choices that don’t always serve him well.
By DEBRA CASH | February 29, 2008

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Allison Moorer

Mockingbird | New Line
Working with producer Buddy Miller, Moorer takes an approach opposite to Lynne’s on the stripped-down Lovin’ , giving each track its own distinct personality.
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 26, 2008

History rocks

Zinn's people's history comes to life, and song
“Not radical,” he replied. “I’d say ‘the truth.’ ”
By JIM SULLIVAN | January 15, 2008

Queen Latifah

Trav'lin Light | Verve
Queen Latifah is never going to be Billie Holiday.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | December 31, 2007

Start with some Spice

A recipe for a tuneful 2008
The game is on for the reunited Spice Girls.
By MATT ASHARE | December 26, 2007

Nostalgia, remixed

Billie Holiday unstuck in time
It’s not that I think Billie Holiday: Remixed and Reimagined is some kind of unforgivable desecration.
By JON GARELICK | December 07, 2007

Covering Dylan

From Newport to I’m Not There
Dylan is his own cover band.
By CHARLES TAYLOR | November 20, 2007

Nuovomondo|Golden Door

A vast but uneven period piece
The lack of focus on the main characters and some bad artistic choices cause the film to slip beneath the waves of its own ambitious vision.
By PEG ALOI | June 13, 2007

A pleasant Reminder

Feist comes into her own
Canadian singer Feist’s third solo album is a soundtrack for watching your lover walk out the door.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | June 04, 2007

At home with home

Sara Cox arrives at domesticity with Crowded Is the New Lonely
Women may dominate the pop charts from time to time, but in the annals of acknowledged rock/pop greatness, they are few in number.
By SAM PFEIFLE | May 30, 2007

Longing for a Reminder

Feist's inevitable breakthrough
The Reminder is a soundtrack for watching your lover walk out the door.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | April 25, 2007

Not quite phenomenal

Ruthie Foster, Johnny D's, March 28, 2007
Fans of deep-roots blues and soul are always looking for new heroes and heroines.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | April 03, 2007