Ledisi Sings Nina

Ledisi, the New Orleans-born and Oakland-raised singer, pays tribute to the legendary Nina Simone with the album Ledisi Sings Nina. Featuring seven songs of social and personal importance drawn from Simone's celebrated songbook, Ledisi Sings Nina is a finely crafted, arrangement-driven collection recorded in Holland, Los Angeles, London, and New Orleans - before and after the pandemic began. It balances upbeat, big-band energy with atmospheric balladry and an attention to historic detail that succeeds in updating the music for a modern hip-hop/R&B era. Ledisi's powerful voice brings to life the messages of Simone's music - of personal empowerment and collective protest - retaining relevance for a BLM generation facing similar challenges and struggles of the 1960s. The performances on Ledisi Sings Nina showcase top-tier support in various contexts: the majority of tracks feature the world-renowned Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley with arrangements by Jochen Neufer, among others. "I'm Going Back Home" features the all-star New Orleans Jazz Orchestra directed by Adonis Rose. "Four Women" sees Ledisi joined by vocalists Lisa Fisher, Lizz Wright, and Alice Smith. The album's sole live recording, "Wild Is The Wind," features Spanish guitar, piano, and drums, taken from the 2020 PBS special broadcast Ledisi Live: A Tribute to Nina Simone.