Album Review: Nina Simone - The Philips Years

4/5

Nina Simone is having a moment, with last year’s Liz Garbus documentary What Happened Miss Simone? to be followed by a Hollywood biopic entitled Nina, starring Zoe Saldana.

That film has generated controversy over the casting of the pale and statuesque Star Trek actress as a musician whom, her family have pointed out, was discriminated through her life because of her dark skin (Garbus has meanwhile dismissed Nina as “ugly and inaccurate”). Thirteen years after her death, Simone, goes the argument, is still a victim of institutional prejudice.