by David Nathan
Hired for an Atlantic city gig in the late 50’s, she discovered that the club owner expected her to sing as well as play and thus began a career that started to blossom as word of her intimate jazz-flavoured musical style began to spread among music lovers in the area. It was around this time that Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone, changing her name so that her family wouldn’t discover that, in the interests of keeping a roof over her head, she needed to play popular rather than classical music.
Nina’s first record deal was with Bethlehem Records, a subsidiary of King Records, a label whose roster included acts like Little Willie John and Bill Doggett and, in 1961, James Brown. Her very first single was a cover of “I Loves You Porgy,” a song that had risen to prominence through the much-acclaimed musical “Porgy & Bess”. Nina’s haunting, emotive reading of the song made it an overnight smash: the record became a Top 20 pop and No. 2 R&B hit in the summer of 1959 and, all of a sudden, Nina Simone’s recording career had taken off.
An album was released and later re-released by Bethlehem under a number of different names (and with different artwork, intended no doubt to make record buyers think they were buying a new record!) including “The Original And Best.” As it turned out, the LP was to become one of the most important releases in Nina’s career when one particular track emerged as a TV commercial some 30 years later and gave Nina a bona fide Top 10 UK pop hit.
For the most part, that first album focused on standards like “Love Me Or Leave Me”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and “Mood Indigo”, alongside some instrumentals that showcased Nina’s dexterity as a keyboard player (“Good Bait” and “Central Park Blues”). Buried in there was a tune originally recorded by Frank Sinatra: “My Baby Just Cares For Me” was done with a shuffle-type beat and within three or four years of release had become an underground favorite – particularly among Jamaican and West Indian record buyers both at home and in the UK.
Nina recorded four additional tunes for Bethlehem which found their way onto a compilation entitled “Nina Simone & Friends” that also included jazz vocalists Carmen McRae and Chris Connor. Unhappy with the contractual aspects of her association with Bethlehem (whose owner wasn’t exactly known for his upstanding attitude with recording artists), Nina signed with Colpix, a label owned by Columbia Pictures which became her recording home for some four years.
The nine albums Nina recorded for Colpix reflected the wide diversity of material that she chose – everything from Ellington standards to African folk songs, spirituals to jazz standards. In many ways, Nina was one of the very first artists to confound critics and industry pundits by defying the categorization and constraints normally thrust upon creative artists. She wouldn’t be pigeon-holed and every LP was a statement that mirrored her desire for creative freedom.
Her initial Colpix LP, “The Amazing Nina Simone”, went from old spirituals like “Children Go Where I Send You” (a song she performed on one of her first British TV appearances in 1965 for ‘Ready, Steady, Go!”) and “Chilly Winds Don’t Blow” to “Stompin’ At The Savoy” and the poignant “Middle Of The Night.”
Since so much of Nina’s artistry happened “in the moment,” she recorded several ‘live’ albums for Colpix including “At Town Hall,” long considered a true classic and one of the first Simone LPs to be released in the UK; “At Newport”; “At Carnegie Hall”; and “Folksy Nina.” Along with “Town Hall,” a performance at a New York club in 1961 remains one of the best samples of her earlier work. “At The Village Gate,” recorded with a trio, features such classics as “House Of The Rising Sun”; the haunting “Brown Baby” (Nina’s first recording that directly referenced her viewpoint as an African-American, living in the US in the early 60’s); and the spiritual “If He Changed My Name.”
Of her few studio recordings for Colpix, the 1961 LP “Forbidden Fruit” was perhaps the best set and became a much-treasured and sought-after album once European record buyers became familiar with Nina’s work, which really began once Nina signed with Philips Records in 1963. In the tradition of cutting ‘live’ albums, Nina’s debut for the label was “In Concert” but it was considerably different in musical form from her previous work.
Over the years since her 1959 debut, Nina had been building a steadfast and loyal following among concert-goers throughout the States who knew that when they attended a Simone performance they were in for a musical treat. Sitting regally at the piano, Nina would demand silence as she took audiences on an emotional journey through different moods and musical styles.
Provocative and willing to express whatever was on her mind, Nina was uncompromising in her stance; in 1963, she decided to say exactly how she felt about the racial issues that had now come full-blown to the surface in the States. “In Concert” included four songs that left listeners with no doubt as to where Nina Simone stood: the fiery “Mississippi Goddam” (which naturally got banned in Mississippi and other Southern states); the self explanatory “Old Jim Crow”; “Go Limp”, a humorous tale about two young people on a civil rights march; and a dark, intense reading of Kurt Weill’s “Pirate Jenny”.
Through six subsequent albums for Philips (including “Broadway-Blues-Ballads”, “Let It All out” and “I Put A Spell On You”), Nina’s feelings of outrage and her commentary on racial issues were expressed in material such as “Four Women” (from “Wild Is The Wind”), “Strange Fruit” (from “Pastel Blues”) and “I Hold No Grudge” (on “The High Priestess Of Soul”) although she also explored sexual (“Gimme Some”, “Chauffeur”, “Tell Me More And More And Then Some,” “Don’t Take All Night” and “Laziest Gal In Town”) and relationship themes (“Something Wonderful”, “Ne Me Quitte Pas” and “I’m Gonna Leave You”).
But two songs emerged as hits for Nina during the period and they became virtual classics: 1964’s brilliant original of “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (covered and turned into a major UK and US smash by the Animals) and “I Put A Spell On You,” Nina’s riveting version of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ tune. “Spell” was actually Nina’s first UK pop entry in 1965, following her first European visit, and marked the beginning of a long and rewarding relationship that Nina enjoys with music lovers in Britain.
Although her very first few concerts in the UK weren’t well-attended, her TV appearances sparked much interest and it wasn’t too long before Nina was packing audiences in at shows in ’66, ’67 and ’68.
Indeed, it was at one such show at the famed Ram Jam club in Brixton in 1967 that Nina learned of West Indian audiences’ love for “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” a song she had never actually performed. While she was quietly accompanying herself at the piano, the crowd kept yelling for the song. Frustrated and annoyed at the noise, Nina stormed offstage (not an unusual occurrence!) and refused to return until someone explained what it was the audience was yelling about. It befell her British fan club secretary to inform her that the volatile crowd simply wanted to hear “My Baby Just Cares” and – a swig of gin later – Nina obliged much to the audience’s pleasure!
Changing record labels in 1967, Nina began recording for RCA Records. By this juncture in her career, her US audience had expanded considerably and Nina’s records could now be heard on R&B stations as well as jazz radio. No longer was she playing small clubs…she had become a constant attraction at major venues like Carnegie Hall in New York.
Nina’s output for RCA encompassed some nine albums culminating in 1974’s “It Is Finished”. The association produced such gems as the now classic “To Be Young, Gifted & Black,” released in 1969; “Ain’t Got No – I Got Life,” (from the musical “Hair”) a No. 2 British pop hit in 1967; “To Love Somebody” (the Bee Gees tune, also a UK hit for Nina), and “Why (The Kind Of Love Is Dead)”, a moving tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King.
As albums, “Nina Simone And Piano!” (on which Nina accompanies herself with no other musical assistance), “Nina Simone Sings The Blues”, “Silk & Soul” and “Nuff Said” stand out, covering the usual vast range of material from Leonard Cohen tunes (“Suzanne”) to pop songs (“Cherish”) to R&B covers (“Ooh Child”) and protest tunes (“Go To Hell”).
While she continued to visit Europe, Nina’s attitude about living in the States underwent major changes in the early ‘70s. She wasn’t given the same media respect in her homeland as she received overseas; her personal life was undergoing a change (she was divorcing Andy Stroud, who had also been her manager since 1962)’ and she felt that the civil rights movement had lost its bite. Nina began what turned out to be something of a nomadic existence, traveling and living in Liberia, Barbados, Switzerland, France and, for a brief time, the UK.
Recording sessions became sporadic and, other than “Baltimore”, an excellent album for CTI Records in 1978 (cut in Belgium), Nina’s name popped up on a variety of different European labels in one-off situations including one set, “Live At Ronnie Scott’s”, recorded at the famous London club and subsequently turned into a home video.
As the Eighties began, Nina ventured back to the States for occasional shows. A run-in with the IRS regarding back-taxes and the discovery that a number of bootleg recordings of ‘live’ shows had flooded the market didn’t endear Nina to staying in the US. Once again making Europe her home, she continued performing, returning in 1985 and 1986 to the States once again to record two more albums, “Nina’s Back” for an independent label and “Live At Vine Street Bar & Grill” for Verve.
Then, in 1987, seemingly out of nowhere, “My Baby Just Cares For Me” was selected by the Chanel perfume company for one of their ad campaigns! Before she could say “huh?” the track she had recorded 28 years earlier had become an international smash throughout Europe. Charly Records had licensed the original Bethlehem album some time before the Chanel campaign and rushed out a single which promptly took Nina to chart heights in almost every European country. It signaled a revitalization for her career – but not before Nina had challenged Charly legally regarding royalty payments for the LP and single.
Finally settling in Holland, Nina Simone still appears in concert on a consistent basis although she hasn’t had a new album for several years. With the UK publication of her autobiography, “I Put a Spell On You” in 1991, Nina began a round of TV appearances in Britain and most recently appeared at London’s Town & Country club.
Still volatile, still a true character and still an enduring talent, Nina Simone had already carved her niche as one of the most important figures in contemporary music.
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