by Fred Dellar
In some ways, things haven't changed overmuch since Eunice Waymon opted to change her name to Nina Simone so that her mother wouldn’t find out that she was playing piano at the Midtown, a seedy Atlantic City bar. Forced to sing after being threatened with dismissal if she didn’t, she hastily devised a set of songs, including I Loves You Porgy, when a customer brought in Billie Holiday’s record of the Gershwin composition and suggested that she might include it in her act. At which point somebody recorded Nina live and released an album without her knowledge. Since then, she’s reprised Porgy on countless occasions, her ever-soulful interpretations frequently appearing on live shots of dubious origin. Nothing changes.
Signed to Syd Nathan’s Bethlehem label in 1958, Nina recorded many of the songs she sang at the Midtown, completing the 14-hour session with My Baby Just Cares For Me.
The album, originally titled Little Girl Blue and reissued in next to no time as Nina Simone With Friends with some previously unreleased tracks, has appeared in numerous forms or formed the basis for various compilations ever since. A fine, jazz-oriented release, it’s currently available as a double-CD called Lady Blue (Charly), the original 14 tracks recorded for Bethlehem being boosted by he inclusion of a remix of My Baby Just Cares For Me, the other with 15 live cuts possibly stemming from the ‘70s and ‘80s, while the moderately priced The Great Nina Simone (Music Club) spans much the same area, mixing early classics with later, live sides.
A stint with Colpix that covered 1959-1963 and resulted in nine albums, is currently represented by just two UK CDs, The Best of Nina Simone – The Colpix Years (Roulette) and At The Village Gate (Roulette). The first is a commendable compilation containing the haunting, string-laden version of Porgy recently used on an Orange communications TV ad, along with other nods in the direct of Lady Day with Fine and Mellow and Gimme a Pigfoot, which Billie, in turn, had learnt from a Bessie Smith recording. For those seeking more, there’s a 2-CD import around Anthology – The Colpix Years (Rhino).
If the Colpix period is scantily covered, Nina’s late 1963-1966 stay with Philips is well documented by a number of Mercury and Verve releases. Signed to the label by a huge man named Big Willy, Nina released seven albums, all of which are currently available in CD form. In Concert/I Put A Spell On You, a two-on-one offering, offers her much-anthologized composition Mississippi Goddamn, a “showtune for a show that hasn’t been written yet”, alongside other defiant originals and personalized versions of true show tunes.
Broadway, Blues, Ballads (Verve) skips the protest approach but her version of See-Line Woman could be the definitive one. Pastel Blues/Let It All Out (US Verve), another two-on-one, is available only on import, while Wild Is The Wind/High Priestess Of Soul, which contains a tongue-in-cheek version of Chuck Berry’s Brown-Eyed Handsome Man along with such jazz-babies as Ellington’s Gal From Joe’s and Oscar Brown Jr’s Work Song, completes the Philips canon. Two compilations, After Hours (Verve), which rounds up the best of the ballads, and Jazz Masters 17 (Verve), a Best Of (though, be warned: it’s a later version of My Baby Just Cares For Me), are fine buys for those who prefer all-in-all aural guides.
By 1966, the year in which Nina became an RCA artist, soul was big and so the label attempted increasingly to push the singer in that direction, often providing her with at least a modicum of pop fare with witch to tempt the youth market. Not that it seemed that way at the start, her debut shot for the label being titled Blues, this self-same album now appearing on RCA Novus, but boasting six bonus cuts including versions of The Pusher and I Shall Be Released.
Again, however, the story is one of few original albums (Silk & Soul, etc) currently available – only compilations spanning the period, during which Simone had major hits with Ain’t Got No – I Got Life, from Hair, her personalized interpretation of the Bee Gees’ To Love Somebody, and also cut a lovely reading of Jimmy Webb’s Do What You Gotta Do (as famously sung by the Four Tops).
With the advent of the ‘70s, Nina, ever unclassifiable and increasingly unreliable, faded from record catalogues and IRS sight until 1978 and Baltimore (Sony), a Creed Taylor production that included covers of such material as the Randy Newman title song and Judy Collins’ tender My Father. Since then there’s been little to speak of. Just Nina’s Back (Meteor), a 1985 eight-song affair with an unfortunate synth-dominated ‘80s setting (though it does include the lovely For A While, a highlight of her live sets originally cut by Frank Sinatra on his Watertown album), and A Single Woman (Elektra), a 1993 release which found her just catching up with Rod McKuen songs and a Streisand special Papa, Can You Hear Me?
Live shots? They’re plentiful. Most are fine but sometimes of doubtful provenance, though Let It Be Me – Live At Vine St (Verve), Live At Ronnie Scott’s (Castle) and The Rising Sun Collection (Rising Sun), ‘80s recordings that all come from good homes and offer cross-sections of the work of a legend whose recordings inspired hits for the likes of The Animals (Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood), Bob and Marcia (Young, Gifted & Black), Amen Corner (Gin House Blues) and Alan Price (I Put A Spell On You).
It’s been a long and winding career for Nina, frustrating for collectors but with much beautiful music along the way.