Album of the Day

One of this year's inductees to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Nina Simone started her musical career as a classically trained child virtuoso and grew to become a revered performer and civil rights champion. From 1959 to 1964 she was signed to Colpix, where she had an unusual degree of artistic control. “I played what I wanted and nothing else,” she once recalled. “There was no proper producer on my records - just an engineer to set everything up, an orchestrator to write out the arrangements, and the rest I did myself.” THE COLPIX SINGLES offers a remarkable look at her artistic growth; across  27 songs ranging from standards (“The Work Song,” “Little Liza Jane”) to striking originals (“Blackbird,” “I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl”), the new 2-CD set traces a musical journey from jazz and folk singer to critically acclaimed songwriter.