3. Nina SimoneNina Simone Sings The Blues

The first record I had of hers was Nina Sings The Blues, but it’s just the genius in everything she did. It’s funny because it’s very fashionable now to sing other people’s songs, but very rarely do you own the song and reinvent it in a way that’s honouring it. I think she had that ability. She’s coming from such an elevated musicality isn’t she? She’s got a classical background, the church, all the jazz and the blues – it all comes out in everything she does. She’s writing and rewriting but in a way that I find is truthful. If you listen to her singing ‘Here Comes The Sun’ it’s like a different song but it’s absolutely truthful to George Harrison’s song, and that speaks of an extraordinary mind. She can’t help but be truthful, it’s just so deep in her, through all of her demons and the mistreatment she had. She’s not perfect when she sings, but you’re just enthralled by her voice on anything. There’s the early recordings when she’s jazz, then she’s making her Black consciousness music, she takes you on a journey. She’s a compelling political artist as well, and I’m sure we’d all like to write a political piece of music but it’s very difficult to do that without it becoming preachy and not really authentic. She has everything.