Artist: Nina Simone
Album: Wild Is The Wind
Genre: Jazz, Blues
Release Date: 1966/2013
Audio Format:: FLAC (tracks) 24 bit, 192 kHz
Duration: 39:21
Total Tracks: 11
Total Size: 1,65 GB

Tracklist:

01. Nina Simone – I Love Your Lovin’ Ways (02:39)
02. Nina Simone – Four Women (04:28)
03. Nina Simone – What More Can I Say (02:52)
04. Nina Simone – Lilac Wine (04:17)
05. Nina Simone – That’s All I Ask (02:32)
06. Nina Simone – Break Down And Let It All Out (02:41)
07. Nina Simone – Why Keep On Breaking My Heart (02:37)
08. Nina Simone – Wild Is The Wind (Live In New York, 1964) (07:00)
09. Nina Simone – Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair (Live In New York, 1964) (03:28)
10. Nina Simone – If I Should Lose You (03:59)
11. Nina Simone – Either Way I Lose (02:44)

Download:

Wild Is the Wind is Nina Simone’s sixth album with the Philips record label and was produced by Hal Mooney. The songs are actually a compilation from a number of different recording sessions for other albums released on Philips. Notable tracks on the album include “Break Down and Let It All Out” and “Four Women.”Nina Simone recorded the title track, originally popularized by Johnny Mathis, twice: it appears on her 1959 live album and again on this 1966 release. David Bowie’s mid-1970s cover version was inspired by the rendition on this album and was recorded after Bowie met Simone. Also includes one of Simone’s signature tunes, the stereotype-fighting Four Women, her only original number on this album. An anthem for the Civil Rights movement, the single was banned upon release by a New York jazz radio station due to what was considered controversial lyrical content at the time.

This album was apparently a bit of a pastiche of leftovers from sessions for Nina Simone’s four previous albums on Philips. But you’d never guess from listening; the material is certainly as strong and consistent as it is on her other mid-’60s LPs. As is the case with most of her albums of the time, the selections are almost unnervingly diverse, ranging from jazz ballads to traditional folk tunes (“Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair”) to the near calypso of “Why Keep on Breaking My Heart” to the somber, almost chilling title track. Highlights are two outstanding pop-soul numbers written by the pre-disco Van McCoy (“Either Way I Lose,” “Break Down and Let It All Out”) and “Four Women,” a string of searing vignettes about the hardships of four African-American women that ranks as one of Simone’s finest compositions. –Richie Unterberger