When Nina Simone released her first recordings for Bethlehem Records in 1958, she sounded strikingly accomplished both as a singer and a pianist, displaying the skill and the inspiration of a seasoned veteran. However, her Bethlehem sides only captured one aspect of her musical personality, and as even the most cursory examination of Simone's career makes clear, she was an artist who stubbornly refused to be pigeonholed. After Simone learned her first lesson about the vagaries of the music business when her deal with Bethlehem went sour, she signed with the Colpix label, where she recorded from 1959 to 1964, a time when jazz artists still made occasional appearances on the pop charts. The Colpix Singles is a collection that brings together the monophonic 45-rpm mixes of the 14 7"s released during Simone's tenure with the label, and it makes for a reasonably thorough overview of her work for Colpix. Simone's Bethlehem sides were recorded simply with a small rhythm section, but at Colpix she had the resources for more polished production and significantly more elaborate arrangements, some of which honor her jazz and blues influences, while others sound like clear efforts to introduce her to a mainstream pop audience. Whatever the surroundings, Simone never sounds like anything other than herself; her voice is strong and confident, her phrasing brings out the many moods and meanings of these songs, and her piano work is virtuosic without calling undue attention to itself. Even when the backings sound treacly, Simone rarely makes an emotionally false move. Simone also cut four live albums for Colpix, and the samples of her concert performances are outstanding; the live tracks capture Simone in her element and in the moment, and preserve her brilliance in simple but mesmerizing form. Completists will be happy to know that seven of these songs appear in single edits and mixes that have never before appeared in digital format, and the remastering is clean and well executed. The Colpix Singles covers a time when Simone was still exploring the boundaries of her creative approach, and not long before activism became a key part of her music and her life; this is far from a definitive sampling of this period, but it does make clear just how fruitful it was. by Mark Deming
Tracklist 1 :
1 Chilly Winds Don't Blow 2:46
Hecky Krasnow / Bill Lovelock2 Solitaire 3:24
King Guion / Carl Nutter
3 Children Go Where I Send You 2:49
Traditional
4 Willow Weep for Me 3:10
Ann Ronell
5 The Other Woman 2:57
Jessie Mae Robinson
6 It Might as Well Be Spring 3:16
Oscar Hammerstein II / Richard Rodgers
7 Summertime 2:50
George Gershwin
8 Fine and Mellow 3:24
Billie Holiday
9 Since My Love Has Gone 2:48
Jack Aaron / Herbert Wasserman
10 Tomorrow (We Will Meet Once More) 3:02
Hermann Krasnow / Jerry Silverman
11 Under the Lowest [Short Version] 3:09
Nina Simone
12 If Only for Tonight 3:02
Martin Kalmanoff / Aaron Schroeder
13 Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out 2:40
Jimmie Cox
14 Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Hair 3:31
Traditional
Tracklist 2 :
1 Trouble in Mind [Single Version] 2:10
Richard Jones
2 Cotton Eyed Joe 2:51
Traditional
3 Work Song 2:07
Nat Adderley / Oscar Brown, Jr.
4 Memphis in June 2:39
Hoagy Carmichael / Paul Francis Webster
5 You Can Have Him 3:36
Irving Berlin
6 Gin House Blues 2:26
Fletcher Henderson / Henry Troy
7 Come on Back Jack 2:15
Leon Carr / Earl Shuman
8 You've Been Gone Too Long 2:11
9 In the Evening by the Moonlight 2:12
Nina Simone / Traditional
10 I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl 2:44
Nina Simone
11 I Got It Bad (And That Ain't Good) 3:38
Duke Ellington / Paul Francis Webster
12 Little Liza Jane 2:30
Traditional
13 Blackbird 3:54
Herb Sacker / Nina Simone
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