Nina Simone – Blackbird The Colpix Recordings (1959-1963)

Nina Simone – Blackbird The Colpix Recordings (1959-1963)

SoulMusic

8CD/DL

Out now

Expansive 8CD set that includes all of the albums Jazz/R&B legend Nina Simone recorded for the label, plus bonus tracks. Ian Canty writes…

When Tyron North Carolina local Eunice Kathleen Waymon became Nina Simone, it was with the express purpose of performing on the Atlantic City nightclub scene. She came from a family very involved with the Methodist church and she didn’t want her mother in particular to find out just what she was doing, hence the name change. Nina had been something of a child prodigy on the piano, playing from an early age and giving her first classical performance while she was still at school. She had applied for a place at the prestigious Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, but was unsuccessful and as a result Simone gravitated to work in the nightclubs as part of a busy schedule of jobs designed to pay for private music tuition.

Now singing as well as playing piano, Nina quickly became a hit on the live circuit and in early 1959 cut her debut album Little Girl Blue for Bethlehem record label. Success was almost immediate, as she scored a US Top 20 hit on 45 with I Loves You Porgy, a version of which is among the bonus tracks on disc one of this set.

Blackbird The Colpix Recordings joins Nina’s career logically enough at the point where she had signed for the New York imprint. She made her bow for Colpix with the follow up to the Little Girl Blue LP, The Amazing Nina Simone, which starts off this set. Even at this relatively early stage in her recording career, she cuts it as a highly accomplished presence and this rare combination of poise, style and aptitude was crucial in her making an impact.

Simone’s assured and delicately judged delivery was already highly developed and her talents are applied here to a range of songs from Jazz ballads, to Gospel, to Blues and most work beautifully. Starting off with the sad but graceful Blue Prelude, there are in truth a few dog-eared standards present, but Nina’s voices things with such elan and brightness it doesn’t really matter. Benny Goodman’s Stompin’ At The Savoy gets a classy, big band shot of vigour and a fast moving You’ve Been Gone Too Long ably demonstrates Simone’s mastery of R&B raunch.

A gorgeous That’s Him Over There is conclusive proof that Nina was highly adept in reading an emotional slowie, with an ebullient Theme From Middle Of The Night later ramming home the fact. The Bluesy Willow Weep For Me and an orchestrated Solitaire puts the full stop off a satisfying opening Colpix compendium. Along with the LP, there are five bonus items added to this disc, with the lush hit I Loves You Porgy and a touching Spring Is Here standing out.

1959 also brought Nina Simone At Town Hall, which was recorded at the Manhattan venue and makes up the bulk of disc two here. Her piano skills are well deployed in the live setting, like on opening track Black Is The Color My True Love’s Hair and an easy-going Exactly Like You that follows in its wake. The stripped-down format, with sensitive accompaniment by the rhythm section of Jimmy Bond and Albert Heath, works very well to focus on Nina’s vocal craft and keyboard skills, both of which have the indelible mark of a maestro.

She shines on piano on Under The Lowest and the early flourishes and rolls of You Can Have Him. A two part rendering of George Gershwin’s Summertime constructs a finely-drawn air of drama, with a nippy Return Home thriving due to some nimble bass work. Nina sounds thoroughly at home on stage and it was no surprise that Colpix often went back to the well of live recordings for her albums. Wild Is The Wind is probably better known in the UK through David Bowie’s version, but listening to Nina’s take it is hard not to think of this as the definitive cut. Two bonuses in the form of single edits of Under The Lowest and You Can Have Him ends this disc.

The format of …At Town Hall, clearly paid off, so it was no real shock that another live selection followed in 1960. Caught at the famed Newport Jazz Festival, this set found Simone backed by guitarist Al Schackman, Bobby Hamilton on drums and Chris White playing the bass. The fine Blues of a brilliantly sung Trouble In Mind and a dreamy Blues For Porgy kicks things off in real style. There’s hints of the Soul Music to come amid the frantic pulse of Little Liza Jane and the self-composed pairing of the percussive Exotica of Flo Me La and a riffing Nina’s Blues fit in comfortably alongside the Cole Porter tune You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To.

Only consisting of seven numbers, Nina Simone At Newport is presented here with a further five bonus tracks. Among them are Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out and Trouble In Mind, both of which were minor hits on the US charts as singles. A doom-laden Since My Love Has Gone is a showstopper and the upbeat guitar shuffle of In The Evening By The Moonlight passes muster too.

In contrast to the three albums of 1959, 1961 only saw Forbidden Fruit released. This 10 track collection has been billed as a studio LP on the net, but is really an up close and personal live artefact. This is immediately apparent on an electric Rags And Old Iron, which ends with applause. Then there’s a segue into the late night Jazz of No Good Man and Gin House Blues again has a little feel of R&B’s transformation into Soul. A tender I’ll Look Around is just heart-breaking, while a hard-edged Work Song packs a punch. Just Say I Love Him features some sparkling guitar work and a very satisfying LP is rounded off by Hoagy Carmichael’s Memphis In June and the title track, where Nina fronts up a comic tale rooted in Gospel Blues.

10 bonus offerings appear on this disc. This section begins with an earthy Gimme A Pigfoot, which along with a few others here featured on the Nina Simone With Strings album released in 1966 some time after Nina had left the label. Dexterous piano enlivens a cool version of Try A Little Tenderness and Lonesome Valley is powered by more of the Rock & Roll beat than what has preceded it. Ira Gershwin and Kurt Weill provide the structure for an emotion-wracked My Ship and the exotic percussion, guitar and whistle of Od Yesh Homa provides a refreshing change in emphasis. Simone goes back to what got her a hit on Porgy I Is Your Woman Now, which closes out this disc.

Nina Simone returned to the NY live scene for Nina At The Village Gate, issued in early 1962. Opening up with some Jazz loose riffing, Just In Time then settles into a steady pulse and Nina in full seductive voice and lyrical piano mode. A few years before The Animals scored the hit version, she takes House Of The Rising Sun and makes it totally hers. A passionate Brown Baby signals Nina’s deep connection to the civil rights movement, something that was of vital importance to her, with the bare-bones elegance of If He Changed My Name and an extended Gospel rave-up take of Children Go Where I Send You completing another solid outing.

Two Israeli songs start the quartet of extras here. Eretz Zavat Chalav U’Dvash and Vaynikehu, the former with guest player Montego Joe on dumbek, are both lively and rhythmic outings, with the latter being solely instrumental. The busy Sinner Man and a rendering of another soon to be UK Beat band hit You’ll Never Walk Alone aren’t bad either.

For her next album, a true studio set, Simone dipped into Duke Ellington’s songbook. Nina Simone Sings Ellington! debuted later in 1962 and the combination of the Duke and Nina was for the most part inspired. Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me is prime Jazz Pop and a languid I Got It Bad, also released as a 45, drifts along marvellously. The Blues is invoked for Hey, Buddy Bolden and Something To Live For is delivered with customary aplomb.

On the second side of the original vinyl LP Nina imbues Solitude with slow and steady purpose and a soaring vocal styling, with a sinuous The Gal From Joe’s being stacked full of cool. I think it has all the ingredients of a successful single for 1962, if only it was released on 45 at the time. The instrumental Satin Doll will be familiar to anyone who has seen Police Squad! and Nina Sings Ellington gets a upbeat finale in a fast version It Don’t Mean A Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).

There were two singles around the time of the above LP and three tracks from them are added to this disc. Come On Back Jack didn’t make the charts, but arguably deserved more, as it is a dynamic R&B creation. Its flipside, a fiery cover of the Sam Cooke number Chain Gang (Work Song), is also present. I Got It Bad’s reverse, the slow and suggestive I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl, comes over as a good Jazz/Blues ballad that makes a feature of dropping out to just vocals.

Despite not having much success in the US charts, Simone remained a firm favourite on the live circuit and Colpix issued excerpts from her debut at the prestigious Carnegie Hall as her next collection in 1963. Gian Carlo Menotti’s Black Swan offers something a little out there, as it is taken from its operatic roots and shifted towards a meditative, hypnotic groove with some near-Psychedelic testifying four years early.

It’s a very different record from Nina’s other live efforts in this set, as Nina Simone At Carnegie Hall finds her fulfilling her childhood dream of playing a classical concert in such a venue. As this is the case, the Blues is mostly side-lined here for the likes of piano exploration on the Theme From Samson And Delilah. A sweetly performed If You Knew follows.

The Exotica-tinged Theme From Sayonara is another curve ball, with a sparkling Twelfth Of Never being the first of two tunes made famous by Johnny Mathias. A take of Will I Find My Love Today, recording in 1957 by JM, comes next and the LP is concluded by a medley of piano and vocal tour de force The Other Woman and Folk oldie Cotton Eyed Joe. Two further tracks taped at the Carnegie, in the form of the audience participation-enhanced, Gospel-inclined Will I Find A Resting Place and another jumping version of Little Liza Jane, are added here.

For the last album of this set, eight other tunes played at the Carnegie Hall with Folk leanings were put out as the self-explanatory Folksy Nine LP. Twelfth Of Never was included again, but as it was on the Carnegie Hall record it isn’t duplicated on this disc. A relaxed, keyboard-enhanced boogie cut of Huddie Ledbetter’s Silver City Bound gets Folksy Nina underway and the acapella intro to When I Was A Young Girl is one to treasure.

Both Lass Of The Low Country and The Young Knight find Nina digging deep into the Folk archive, with the pair being flavoured by a restless acoustic guitar. The LP closes with two songs that could be termed lullabies. Mighty Lak A Rose segues into Hush Little Baby and forms into a suitably dream-like whole.

Yet another Carnegie Hall cut in a lengthy but stunning Work Song is the first of two bonus efforts and I liked the musical vamping at the end of it very much too. Lastly we get the wobbly yet sultry sound of the title track Blackbird, which sat on the reverse of the 1963 45 release of Little Liza Jane.

This set comes with each album housed in evocative mini-sleeves and a wealth of information is contained in the liner notes. It’s been put together with love for the subject, there is no doubt. Nina Simone’s years at Colpix perhaps weren’t her most commercially successful, but were marked by excellence all the way along. For me she really hit her peak around the time of the Forbidden Fruit album. From there this set is more of less a constant delight, with her voice and keyboard talents being given the ideal opportunity to be utilized to their best effect. As a study of the early part of Nina Simone’s recording career, it is difficult to see Blackbird The Colpix Recordings being topped.

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