AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic Album series with a re-mastered 2CD release from Nina Simone, complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details (where available). “The Amazing Nina Simone”; “Nina Simone at Town Hall”; “Forbidden Fruit” and “Nina Simone At Newport’” Us folks in music retail are often plagued with the problem of where to categorise an artist. In fact for many music fans, even trying to categorise a musician is actually the problem right there! “Let the music speak for itself”, they all cry. If only life were so simple! Imagine you walk into a record shop and everything is listed alphabetically. You would have to wade through a lot of stuff beginning with “s” before you got to Nina Simone. At least with a jazz section you know where you will find John Coltrane or Miles Davis. And so we get nearer to our problem, where do we file Nina Simone? Here is a fine artist whose background is essentially classical, gospel and blues and yet on our selections she is undoubtedly singing in the jazz mode. A bit like Ray Charles, we thought, crosses many genres! So jazz it is. Here we feature four of Nina’s earliest albums in a mixture of studio and live recordings. Her style at this early stage was certainly more in the jazz idiom, based on her gospel and blues background before she moved closer to soul and even pop later in her career.
CD1 1-12: ‘The Amazing Nina Simone’ 1. Blue Prelude 2. Children Go Where I Send You 3. Tomorrow (We Will Meet Once More) 4. Stompin’ At The Savoy 5. It Might As Well Be Spring 6. You’ve Been Gone Too Long 7. That’s Him Over There 8. Chilly Winds Don’t Blow 9. Theme from “Middle Of The Night” 10. Can’t Get Out Of This Mood 11. Willow Weep For Me 12. Solitaire 13-23: ‘Nina Simone At Town Hall’ 13. Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair 14. Exactly Like You 15. The Other Woman 16. Under The Lowest 17. You Can Have Him 18. Summertime (instrumental) 19. Summertime (vocal) 20. Cotton Eyed Joe 21. Return Home 22. Wild Is The Wind 23. Fine And Mellow
CD2 1-10: ‘Forbidden Fruit’ 1. Rags And Old Iron 2. No Good Man 3. Gin House Blues 4. I’ll Look Around 5. I Love To Love 6. Work Song 7. Where Can I Go Without You 8. Just Say I Love Him 9. Memphis In June 10. Forbidden Fruit 11-17: ‘Nina Simone At Newport’ 11. Trouble In Mind 12. Porgy 13. Little Liza Jane 14. You’d Be So Nice To Come Home To 15. Flo Me La 16. Nina’s Blues 17. In The Evening By The Moonlight
