Perhaps one of the best things about editing part of the APMF is to be able to go completely off-topic and personal and no ranking editor threatens to fire you. I've done it before to mark the passing of those who to me, have given much more than they have taken. They have included Miles Davis, Ronnie Scott and Spike Milligan among many others.

Today Nina Simone left us, and the world is a decidedly better place for her time with us...

She certainly toured Australia, but I don't know whether she actually made it to other places in Asia. That's a great pity, but her recordings still frequent flea markets and pasar malams around the region, though they are hard to find.

As an old piano player myself, though decidedly part time, Nina Simone was perhaps the greatest influence on the way i banged out a tune on the old goanna.

The "Priestess of Soul" was aptly named, as she could reach into your soul and wrench it for all its worth. Other performers can touch your heart, but very few can reach your soul.

Her crisp piano technique, sparse and economic, at times rhythmic but always stylistic, was instantly recognizable. She was to the piano what BB King was to the electric guitar. But the piano was merely a foundation for a voice that could squeeze every last emotion from powerful lyrics.

At home, I still keep around 20 vinyl disks of Nina Simone's early work, recorded seemingly on very rusty machines, yet the music shone through the technology. Sparse and concise bass lines, trinkling keyboard phrases laid on top of subtle chord phrasing. A strong and dominant voice. Nothing wasted. Everthing had a reason and combined beautifully. Proud, gifted, and of course black.

Her soul-gospel stylings are most evident in her renderings of such classics as "Cotton-tailed Joe" and even extended to more popular renderings of pop such as Bob Dylan's "I shall be released".

Her style was highly personal. You didnt need others around you to appreciate and be moved by Nina Simone. She sang as if it was just for you. She inspired, she pricked your conscience, and she made you feel great to be alive.

But most precious of all these recordings are one of her earliest. "Strange Fruit", adapted from the dark poem by Lewis Allen describing the lynching of blacks in the American South is accompanied with a haunting melody, and competes with Aretha Franklin's live version of the "Lord's Prayer" for one of the greatest vocal performances ever in my mind.

Nina Simone, though she made several artistically acclaimed but never highly popular covers of contemporary pop, refused to compromise her style like many before her. She died true to her soul, exiled in Paris, but her life sapped by a world that deserved far less than what she gave.

Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter fruit.

She certainly gave many "a little sugar in their bowl". Thank you Nina for a life well lived, and a life that gave far more to the world than it ever took..

Today, Nina Simone was finally released, and today also, I feel just a little more lonely... There are many around the world who will feel the same.