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Nina Simone Sings the Blues
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Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Current price: $12.99
Barnes and Noble
Nina Simone Sings the Blues
Current price: $12.99
Size: CD
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Nina Simone Sings the Blues
, issued in 1967, was her
RCA
label debut, and was a brave departure from the material she had been recording for
Phillips
. Indeed, her final album for that label,
High Priestess of Soul
, featured the singer, pianist, and songwriter fronting a virtual orchestra. Here,
Simone
is backed by a pair of guitarists (
Eric Gale
and
Rudy Stevenson
), bassist (
Bob Bushnell
), drummer (
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie
), organist (
Ernie Hayes
), and harmonica player who doubled on saxophone (
Buddy Lucas
).
handled the piano chores. The song selection is key here. Because for all intents and purposes this is perhaps the rawest record
ever cut. It opens with the sultry, nocturnal, slow-burning original
"Do I Move You,"
which doesn't beg the question but demands an answer: "Do I move you?/Are you willin'?/Do I groove you?/Is it thrillin'?/Do I soothe you?/Tell the truth now?/Do I move you?/Are you loose now?/The answer better be yeah...It pleases me...." As the guitarists slip and slide around her husky vocal, a harmonica wails in the space between, and
's piano is the authority, hard and purposely slow. The other tune in that vein,
"In the Dark,"
is equally tense and unnerving; the band sounds as if it's literally sitting around as she plays and sings. There are a number of
signature tunes on this set, including
"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl,"
"Backlash Blues,"
and her singular, hallmark, definitive reading of
"My Man's Gone Now"
from
Porgy and Bess
. Other notable tracks are the raucous, sexual roadhouse
blues
of
"Buck,"
written by
's then husband
Andy Stroud
, and the woolly
gospel
"Real Real,"
with the Hammond B-3 soaring around her vocal. The cover of
Buddy Johnson
's
"Since I Fell for You"
literally drips with ache and want.
also reprised her earlier performance of
"House of the Rising Sun"
(released on a 1962
Colpix
live platter called
At the Village Gate
). It has more authority in this setting as a barrelhouse
; it's fast, loud, proud, and wailing with harmonica and B-3 leading the charge. The original set closes with the slow yet sassy
"Blues for Mama,"
ending with the same sexy strut the album began with, giving it the feel of a Moebius strip.
is a hallmark recording that endures; it deserves to be called a classic. ~ Thom Jurek
, issued in 1967, was her
RCA
label debut, and was a brave departure from the material she had been recording for
Phillips
. Indeed, her final album for that label,
High Priestess of Soul
, featured the singer, pianist, and songwriter fronting a virtual orchestra. Here,
Simone
is backed by a pair of guitarists (
Eric Gale
and
Rudy Stevenson
), bassist (
Bob Bushnell
), drummer (
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie
), organist (
Ernie Hayes
), and harmonica player who doubled on saxophone (
Buddy Lucas
).
handled the piano chores. The song selection is key here. Because for all intents and purposes this is perhaps the rawest record
ever cut. It opens with the sultry, nocturnal, slow-burning original
"Do I Move You,"
which doesn't beg the question but demands an answer: "Do I move you?/Are you willin'?/Do I groove you?/Is it thrillin'?/Do I soothe you?/Tell the truth now?/Do I move you?/Are you loose now?/The answer better be yeah...It pleases me...." As the guitarists slip and slide around her husky vocal, a harmonica wails in the space between, and
's piano is the authority, hard and purposely slow. The other tune in that vein,
"In the Dark,"
is equally tense and unnerving; the band sounds as if it's literally sitting around as she plays and sings. There are a number of
signature tunes on this set, including
"I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl,"
"Backlash Blues,"
and her singular, hallmark, definitive reading of
"My Man's Gone Now"
from
Porgy and Bess
. Other notable tracks are the raucous, sexual roadhouse
blues
of
"Buck,"
written by
's then husband
Andy Stroud
, and the woolly
gospel
"Real Real,"
with the Hammond B-3 soaring around her vocal. The cover of
Buddy Johnson
's
"Since I Fell for You"
literally drips with ache and want.
also reprised her earlier performance of
"House of the Rising Sun"
(released on a 1962
Colpix
live platter called
At the Village Gate
). It has more authority in this setting as a barrelhouse
; it's fast, loud, proud, and wailing with harmonica and B-3 leading the charge. The original set closes with the slow yet sassy
"Blues for Mama,"
ending with the same sexy strut the album began with, giving it the feel of a Moebius strip.
is a hallmark recording that endures; it deserves to be called a classic. ~ Thom Jurek
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