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LOS ANGELES,
Calif. — Originally released by Bethlehem Records
in 1959, Nina Simone and Her Friends was
a compilation album comprising the few remaining unreleased tracks from
the 1957 Little Girl Blue recording
session plus songs recorded by two other former Bethlehem artists, the
powerhouse jazz vocalist Carmen McRae
and the elegant song stylist Chris Connor.
An RSD-Essentials exclusive
“emerald-green” limited-edition 180-gram LP will be available, along with
CD and digital/streaming versions (high-definition and standard) on December 3, 2021.
The reissue features a fresh stereo master done by four-time Grammy
winner Michael Graves as well as a vinyl remastering by
the renowned Kevin Gray. Grammy winner Cheryl Pawelski produced
the set, which includes a new essay by Daphne A. Brooks,
author of Liner Notes for the Revolution.
As Brooks explains in her essay,
“Bethlehem clustered their work — tracks that had previously appeared on
the label’s Girlfriends compilation —
together with the younger, upstart Simone’s and essentially offered up a
collection of songs that span a range of genres — folk, jazz, pop song
staples, and torch song laments, plus a couple of provocative original
compositions by McRae and Simone. Each track is a reminder of the
clear-eyed independence, verve, and confidence of three artists whose
music, taken together, brims with the majesty and the assured talents of
the late 1950s women artists who led with conviction and invention as musicians
and song interpreters.”
Available today, October 20, as a
sneak-peak, “African Mailman”
is an instrumental track recorded during the Little Girl Blue sessions,
showcasing Nina Simone’s incredible piano playing. At the time, Simone was
in her mid-20s and still aspiring to be a classical concert
pianist. As Brooks describes it: “A magisterial original composition
of Simone’s which, as she recounts it, ‘was made up on the spot in the
studio and recorded in one take,’ finds her moving across an Afrodiasporic
terrain of percussion, leading at the keyboard, rolling and tumbling,
building waves of contrasting chromatic depth and spinning, ethereal
flight.”
NINA SIMONE
AND HER FRIENDS
TRACK
LIST:
1.
Nina Simone – “He’s Got the Whole World in
His Hands”
2.
Chris Conner – “Someone to Watch Over
Me”
3.
Carmen McRae – “Old Devil Moon”
4.
Nina Simone – “I Loves You, Porgy”
5.
Chris Connor – “I Concentrate on
You”
6.
Carmen McRae – “You Made Me Care”
7.
Nina Simone – “For All We Know”
8.
Chris Connor – “From This Moment On”
9.
Carmen McRae – “Too Much in Love to
Care”
10.
Nina Simone – “African Mailman”
11.
Chris Connor – “All This and Heaven
Too”
12.
Carmen McRae – “Last Time for Love”
# # #
Watch the “African Mailman” single: https://youtu.be/40yr9iuv__Q
Linkfire
for the “African Mailman” single: https://music.bmg.com/ninaam
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