Customer Reviews

Anthology: Colpix Years

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Ah smooth, sweet Nina - a low sensuous flame - her voice will pick you up like a baby, carry you to bed, tuck you in and stroke your head as you fall asleep. Soooo many gorgeous songs, but for me the killer - the KILLER - is the most heart shreading ode to loving in vain, "If You Knew" on disc 2. Unparalleled in it's ability to destroy you and cover you with kisses as the same time,..those high, swooping background vocals-good lord! Have a few glasses of wine, dim the lights, dredge up those memories of the one that got away and have a good drunken cry curled up in Nina's soft lap of sound.

I have to admit that I'm a bit young to really remember Nina from her prime. In my hazy recollection, she was something of a supper club singer. The only reason I purchased this, truth be told, was that I found it for an incredibly low price, and I figured that since it was on Rhino, it would at least have good sound and insightful liner notes.

Boy, talk about getting MORE than you bargained for! It isn't just Nina's sultry, smokey voice, it isn't just the often unbelievable phrasing and perfomances that really get at the essence of the material. No, it's all that plus the fact that within the span of these two discs Nina tackles everything from broadway to folk to jazz and manages to excel at all of it.

When you listen to this you shake your head and wonder why Nina has more-or-less faded from public view. Without a doubt, solely on the basis of this material (and there is other material, from the later '60's on other labels to back this up), Nina is one of THE female vocalists of the recorded era. Her general invisibility today is criminal.

Buy this and make your year.

dap

Nina Simone's recorded musical legacy is a stunning one from beginning to end, regardless of record label. Her Colpix albums certainly don't pack quite the political punch that her later albums do, but all the emotion that would reach a boiling point in the late 60s can be found here, if at a gentle simmer. This compilation does a wonderful job of distilling the best of early Nina... I won't ramble on with details about each track (or even narrow things down to a list of highlights) because every track is amazing. If you're already a fan, this anthology might be redundant in what I'm sure is an already near-complete collection. If you are new to the club, this and Jazz Masters 17 (from post-Colpix years) are excellent starting points. This may sound a little hyperbolic, but if Amazon were charging three or four times the price for this, it'd still be a hell of a bargain. You don't have to buy this collection, but PLEASE buy SOMETHING by this amazing and sorely missed talent. She will become your best friend.

Nina Simone is one of those artists from the past with a large number of CDs currently on the market (much like Tony Bennett), but whose hit singles in their original form are hard to find in one neat compilation, primarily because she not only recorded for several different labels, but she also re-recorded most of those hits as she moved around.

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, she was a graduate of New York's Juliard School of Music who performed in clubs in the Philadelphia area before getting a 1959 contract with the influential jazz label, Bethlehem Records, based in New York and Hollywood and founded in 1953 by Gus Wildi.

There, instead of cutting introductory singles as was the custom with most mainstream labels, she started with an LP from which emerged the wonderful single I Loves You, Porgy, first heard in 1933 in the George Gershwin folk opera Porgy And Bess. Backed with an equally-fine version of Love Me Or Leave Me, it went to # 2 R&B and # 18 Billboard Pop Hot 100 in October on Bethlehem 11021.

A year later she was with decidedly non-jazz Colpix Records (Columbia Pictures - Screen Gems) which had been launched in New York in 1958 by Stu Phillips. Her work there, where she cut some of her finest LPs, is the focus of this 2-CD set, which also includes a couple of singles that did much better on the R&B charts. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out, an old Bessie Smith # 15 hit from 1929 which, b/w Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair, went to # 23 R&B and # 93 Hot 100 in late summer 1960 in Colpix 158, followed at the end of the year by Trouble In Mind (a hit for Dinah Washington in 1952) which topped out at # 11 R&B and # 92 Hot 100 in January 1961 on Colpix 175. All four sides are in this release.

In 1965 she switched to Philips, a label that originated in Holland but whose Pop, classical and jazz offerings were now beingmarketed by Mercury. In July she had I Put A Spell On You rise to # 23 R&B and # 123 Hot 100 Bubble Under on Philips 40286 b/w Gimme Some.

Two years later she turned up at RCA Victor where, although continuing her preference for albums, also racked up four more hit singles. First up was Do What You Gotta Do which peaked at # 43 R&B and # 83 Hot 100 in October 1968 b/w Peace Of Mind on RCA Victor 9602. The following January she was back with Ain't Got No; I Got Life from the Broadway hit Hair, a # 94 Hot 100 b/w Real Real on RCA Victor 9686, which was then followed in May by Revolution Part 1 which made it to # 41 R&B b/w Part 2 on RCA Victor 9730. Her final charter was To Be Young, Gifted And Black b/w Save Me which turned out to be her second best in both markets, peaking at # 8 R&B and # 76 Hot 100 in December on RCA Victor 0269.

She was gifted, she was black and, at age 36, not exactly old. But her intense vocal and small combo jazz style quickly fell out of favour with the mass record-buying public and she never did return to the singles charts. But her albums continued to be critically-acclaimed, if not exactly top sellers. Following the death of Martin Luther King, Jr. she became even more actively involved in the civil rights movement, followed in later years by marriage and tax problems and, ultimately, a battle with breast cancer which eventually took her from us on April 21, 2003 at her home in France.

The trick now, if you're looking for original versions of her hits, is to sift through the many re-done and "live" versions. For collectors of hit singles, this one fills the bill only insofar as her Colpix years are concerned. What we need is an Eric Records or Ace of London all-encompassing album.

Let it be known that Nina Simone was known as an ALBUM Artist, Not Singles! Beginning with 1958 Album entitled: "Little Girl Blue-The Original Nina Simone". When Nina signed with Colpix in 1959 they (Colpix) pretty much kept her in the same pattern an ALBUM Artist! (And a handful of Singles!). Because of the various settings and venues several recordings were recorded in MONO! 22 (Twenty-Two) Tracks on this collection are in MONO. The overall sound is real nice especially with these recordings being over 45 years old! Nina was always at her best in a 'Live' setting, so the core of her Colpix Albums were recorded 'Live'! 18 (Eighteen) of those performances are present here on this fantastic Double disc! Highlights from Disc 1: "Blue Prelude", "Willow Weep For Me", "Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair", "Exactly Like You" (If you like "My Baby Just Cares For Me" you're gonna flip over this cut!), "You Can Have Him", "Nobody Wants You When You're Down And Out" This was a Billboard Charted Single Only Charted Hit! (#23)