Nina Simone Performing Live Spotify Playlist

Later this year Nina Simone will be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. The late great multi-talented singer-songwriter, vocalist and pianist rose to prominence following her start in the late 1950s, later finding success while developing a singular, genre-blending style. The outspoken activist born Eunice Waymon in North Carolina on February 21, 1933, was 70 when she passed away in France (where she resided later in life) on April 21, 2003.

Simone was a gifted songwriter and equally skilled at interpreting other composers’ songs. This edition of Saturday Stream features Simone performing her songs and several covers live from various points in her groundbreaking career.

The 20-song set finds Nina in several renowned venues, including New York City’s Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island. There are selections from a 1959 appearance at Town Hall in New York City and she is backed by the Bethany Baptist Church Junior Choir at Fort Dix in New Jersey in 1971.

Highlights include a lengthy cover of “My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison from Fort Dix with an interpolation of the David Nelson poem “Today Is A Killer,” and Simone’s arrangements of such well-known classics as “I Loves You Porgy,” “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” “House Of The Rising Sun” and “Summertime,” among others. A prominent Civil Rights activist, Simone’s support for the cause can be heard on such moving performances of “Mississippi Goddam,” “Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead),” “Backlash Blues” and more.

Simone, Bon Jovi, Dire Straits, The Cars, The Moody Blues and Sister Rosetta Tharpe will be honored at the 33rd Annual Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony on Saturday, April 14 at Cleveland’s Public Auditorium. Tickets to the event go on sale this Thursday, February 8.

Stream Nina Simone performing live below: