The late Nina Simone's autobiography starts with an atmospheric recounting of her North Carolina childhood during the 1930s; she lived in a tight-knit family in an unusually racially mixed community that weathered the Depression with fortitude. Her first inklings of the undercurrents of racism came around the same time as the flowering of her musical talents, and her music soon became inseparable from her political outlook. She became one of the most outspoken black entertainers of the 1960s, eventually taking up a self-imposed exile in Africa and Europe, but a series of unfortunate relationships and ill-advised business decisions led to a suicide attempt in London. Simone relates her side of her well-known and sometimes stormy relationship with her audience, dismissing her reputation as a difficult artist by explaining her attitude to her music and her sensitivity towards the atmosphere she performed in. As portrayed here, her hair-trigger temperament was inseparable from her art and her politics. I PUT A SPELL ON YOU is a powerful blend of reminiscence and emotional fragility, and a revealing look at the inner life of a complex and often misunderstood artist. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.