Few singers captured the many moods and musical styles of the 1960s more vividly than did Nina Simone, a walking definition of what would later be called “multiculti.” Simone (1933-2003) grew up immersed in blues and gospel, studied classical piano at Juilliard, then began performing jazz and pop standards as a means of supporting herself. Her core audience initially consisted of jazz fans, but she soon added folk songs to her repertoire and was singing rock ‘n’ roll and soul by the mid-’60s. A confrontational, socially conscious singer who came to prominence at the height of the civil rights movement, Simone could make the most neutral of Tin Pan Alley standards seem like stinging indictments of racism or sexism. Yet she was beloved by black and white audiences alike, in America and abroad.

Simone usually sang in a hypnotically low monotone and an even dynamic, sustaining interest by constantly varying her tempo, accompaniment, and musical genres. It’s this eclecticism that has made Simone one of the most influential singers of her generation. Her influence is readily apparent in such contemporary performers as Dianne Reeves, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, Norah Jones, and Alicia Keys, all of whom also sing with a very controlled, even tone and combine elements of jazz, pop, and folk music.

Like Ella Fitzgerald, Simone was an early believer in the live-in-concert album. Her first longterm recording contract was with Colpix Records, for whom she released nine albums between 1959 and 1964, five of which were recorded in front of audiences. 47 years ago this month, Simone recorded her first concert album, “Nina Simone at Town Hall,” an event that will be commemorated this Friday with a special evening at that same venue starring her daughter, a well-known Broadway performer who goes by the simple stage name Simone.

Another extraordinary Nina Simone concert, this one in 1968 at the Westbury Music Fair on Long Island, is a key element of a new compilation, “Forever Young, Gifted, and Black: Songs of Freedom and Spirit,” one of four important reissues of Simone’s music in recent months. The others are a collection titled “The Soul of Nina Simone” and two expanded albums, “Silk and Soul” and “Nina Simone Sings the Blues.”

One of Simone’s strongest albums, “Nina Sings the Blues” is supplemented by two new bonus tracks in the reissued version. The tracks here encompass a wide range of African-American source material, including the Delta-Chicago blues of Willie Dixon (“Whatever I Am”), the vaudeville blues of Bessie Smith (“I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”), and several permutations of rhythm and blues, most notably Buddy Johnson’s standard “Since I Fell for You.”

The same diversity is reflected in the “The Soul of Nina Simone,” an anthology released in the new DualDisc format, meaning one side of the disc plays as a standard audio CD, and the other as a DVD. Side A is a solid starter collection of 15 typically fine Simone tracks, but the DVD side is a revelation. Here is Simone in three key performances from her most important decade, beginning with a contrapuntal reworking of “Love Me or Leave Me” on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1960. Also included are four songs from an outdoor concert in Central Park in 1969, which climaxes with her show-stopping “Four Women.” A lacerating incrimination of what she saw as a racist and patriarchal society, the piece would be considered more of a performance-art monologue today.

Yet the most fascinating of the new Simone releases is “Forever Young, Gifted, and Black.” The accompanying booklet, which includes a worshipful essay by Ms. Keys, begins and ends with photos of the 1963 march on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr.; the CD begins and ends with two renditions of Simone’s “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black.” The collection’s producer, Richard Seidel, has, in effect, assembled a concept compilation album, the theme of which is delineated in the subtitle “Songs of Freedom and Spirit.” Gathered from Simone’s RCA recordings of 1966 to 1974, this is a dynamic and exciting package that could serve as the soundtrack to an era.

In these songs, Simone posits herself at the center of black culture. She quotes the words of the great poet Lorraine Hansbury, whose book “To Be Young, Gifted, and Black” inspired the title song, and of Langston Hughes, who provided the lyrics for “Backlash Blues.” She also reflects the Afrocentric turn of the late 1960s with her rendition of “Westwind,” which she was encouraged to sing by the South African singer Miriam Makeba.

But Simone also takes on material by white writers, singing “Ain’t Got No,” the hippie anthem from “Hair”; “The Times They Are A-Changing,” one of five Bob Dylan songs she recorded and invested with the power of prayer; and “Turn, Turn, Turn,” a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes that folkster Pete Seeger turned into a pop hit. The only track here that sounds dated is Simone’s “Revolution,” an original first issued as a two-sided single. It was something of a hit for her in 1969, but compared to the rest of this material, it sounds didactic and heavy-handed.

The centerpieces of the compilation are two songs from the April 7, 1968, Westbury concert. RCA taped the whole show, Simone’s first live recording in four years, and issued portions of it that same year on an album called “‘Nuff Said.” The original album intermingled the live material in heavily edited form with several studio tracks. “‘Nuff Said” is not currently available on CD, though several tracks were re-edited and included in two 1998 CD collections, “Saga of the Good Life and High Times” and “The Very Best of Nina Simone.”

This concert is so special because it occurred three days after King was murdered in Memphis. Simone counted the reverend among her friends, and on these recordings, she is barely able to contain her rage. Interestingly, she does not lambaste what must have been a predominantly white Long Island audience. Instead, she blames King’s entourage, saying that the assassination could have been prevented if his associates had been on the ball.

She does one prayer, “Why? (The King of Love Is Dead),” which was apparently written on April 5 by Gene Taylor and learned by Simone the following day. Simone never sang anything more moving than this song, in which the depth of her feeling becomes incredibly plain, and the normally defiant singer sounds vulnerable for once. After finishing the song, Simone talks for a while, reflecting on the recent deaths of black icons. “It really gets down to reality, doesn’t it?” she asks, sounding as if she were laughing and crying at the same time.

“Mississippi Goddam” is just the opposite. Here the imperious Simone delivers a rollicking and rhythmic anthem of protest, a call to action set to the tempo of a minstrel show, as if she were intent on turning racist conventions on their ear. “I ain’t about to be nonviolent, honey,” she says, halfway through the track.

These two live cuts, more than any others, illustrate the conviction that Simone’s friend, the poet Nikki Giovanni, describes in the booklet: “[Simone] raised her voice to the Heavens to send down curses to the evildoers and benedictions to the just.”

wfriedwald@nysun.com