Arthur Magazine please for the release of footage of Nina Simone performing at the Harlem Festival in 1969. Though it hasn’t been released in the U.S. on DVD, the post compiles various Youtube clips of it, including this one:
There’s not really such a thing as Nina Simone live footage that isn’t stunningly good. I saw her play when I was 16, I had no idea who she was. I was standing with my friend Everett, who was visiting from England, we were waiting for a bus, and he looked down the street, and the marquis on the theatre said “Nina Simone Tonight”–and he shrieked and we ran across the street to the box office and he bought the best tickets they had available and that was that. I had never really seen anything but rock bands in dirty clubs and basements until then. So, seeing this intense, regal jazz/blueswoman behind a piano and being 3 rows away from that voice–it made me realize there was a lot I was missing and had yet to know about music. She was so intense it was scary. I really remember feeling so, that and the sharpness of her voice–I had never heard anything like that. Like her.
Montreaux 1976
but I think the 1985 Live at Ronnie Scott’sfootage is some of my favorite–it’s on dvd–you can get it on Netflix:
and theres more too.