Tracks: 1) Mood Indigo; 2) Don’t Smoke In Bed; 3) He Needs Me; 4) Little Girl Blue; 5) Love Me Or Leave Me; 6) My Baby Just Cares For Me; 7) Good Bait; 8) Plain Gold Ring; 9) You’ll Never Walk Alone; 10) I Loves You Porgy; 11) Central Park Blues; 12*) He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands; 13*) For All We Know; 14*) African Mailman.
You know what makes you a good reviewer? Somehow you manage to install an urge (perhaps even desire) within me to listen to artists I otherwise never would have paid attention to. I know some of Simone's later work and I don't really like it. But I like Holiday's voice. So here I go with Strange Fruit. Know what? The superior version would have been Simone on the piano and Holiday singing.
"manages to already reflect her classical background in the very first minute"
I don't hear it. That's not criticism; I think she nails the jazzy approach pretty well. However I do hear it in the first few seconds of Don't Smoke in Bed and of course in the way she plays You'll Never Walk Alone as well. A pity Simone would not pursue this road further; a female Afro-American proto Keith Emerson would have been quite a sensation. So she has a point when complaining about her rejection; I guess 1951 was still too early for a conservatory to stimulate classical-jazz fusion. Only 15 - 20 years before George Gershwin felt that he wasn't appreciated enough at least in the USA.
You know what makes you a good reviewer? Somehow you manage to install an urge (perhaps even desire) within me to listen to artists I otherwise never would have paid attention to. I know some of Simone's later work and I don't really like it. But I like Holiday's voice. So here I go with Strange Fruit. Know what? The superior version would have been Simone on the piano and Holiday singing.
"manages to already reflect her classical background in the very first minute"
I don't hear it. That's not criticism; I think she nails the jazzy approach pretty well. However I do hear it in the first few seconds of Don't Smoke in Bed and of course in the way she plays You'll Never Walk Alone as well. A pity Simone would not pursue this road further; a female Afro-American proto Keith Emerson would have been quite a sensation. So she has a point when complaining about her rejection; I guess 1951 was still too early for a conservatory to stimulate classical-jazz fusion. Only 15 - 20 years before George Gershwin felt that he wasn't appreciated enough at least in the USA.