Nina Simone - Nina Simone at the Village Gate

Quintessential Nina

One of my favorite albums of all time perhaps because I saw Nina at the Village Gate during the period when she cut these tracks live. Her Bach-inspired version of Bye Bye Blackbird never fails to give me a lift. December 31, 2008

Classic live performance by one of the jazz world's great singer/pianists.

Recorded in 1961, at the Village Gate, when Nina Simone, at age twenty-eight, was finding great success and popularity through her recordings on Colpix Records, this live performance beautifully recreates the mood and atmosphere of a Nina Simone concert. A performer with talents in many directions--and a classical background in piano, which she studied at Juilliard School of Music--Simone shows off her skills brilliantly in this CD, which never seems to repeat the same kind of music twice.

In the finger-popping "Just in Time," she begins almost in a monotone, singing the melody against a bass, but then picks up the tempo and introduces a sparkling piano treatment, her own arrangement. The ballad "He Was Too Good For Me," a slow lament of a lost love, is followed by "House of the Rising Sun," a folk song familiar to audiences worldwide now, but new at the time--sung as funky blues with a strong guitar and bass beat.

"Bye Bye Blackbird" is unique on the CD--an 8:12 minute jam session with no vocal. Simone on piano, and her guitarist, Al Shackman, provide a musical statement and then echo for two minutes, with drums, cymbals, and a more upbeat piano following. Filled with variations on the familiar theme, the track ends with a grand finale of classical jazz. "Brown Baby," a "freedom song" recorded in the days before Freedom Rides and the death of Martin Luther King, is a powerful assertion, which ends in a wail. "Zungo," which follows appropriately, is an African inspired number with drum accompaniment.

The highlight of the CD for me was "Children, Go Where I Send You," a revival song so full of energy that it will have you ready to leap through your speakers to "witness" along with Simone. Simone had complete artistic control at Colpix, and it shows here. The CD is beautifully paced and offers a great deal of variety, and Simone wisely keeps her accompaniment to a minimum. A terrific CD! n Mary Whipple

Anthology
The Very Best Of Nina Simone, 1967-1972 : Sugar In My Bowl
Nina Simone - Live at Montreux 1976
Nina: The Essential Nina Simone
Nina Simone's Finest Hour

June 26, 2008

Nina: haunting vocalist & awesome jazz pianist

This is one of Nina's best and there are many of high quality. On this album and the "At Town Hall" albums you get wonderful piano improvisations that mix jazz and classical techniques. Her version of "Just in Time" is one of the best I have ever heard. She owns it! She takes traditional African American material like "Children Go Where I Send You",from the 19th century and reinvents it in the context of the golden age of jazz circa 1950s through 1960s. She is an expert at building tension and release with dramatic flare and autheticity. Most of the songs on this album got plenty of airplay on jazz stations during the 60s. It's a sure bet to have frequent spins on you CD player. October 28, 2007

Nina Simone at the Village Gate

I like the CD. However,I was disappointed that there was a different arrangement of 'Just in Time' on the CD. I was really looking for the arrangement that was used at the end of the movie 'Before Sunset.' As with everything that Nina does, it was otherwise great. February 26, 2006

A Signpost of American Music

In reviewing Nina Simone's 1982 disc re-released earlier this year, "Fodder On My WIngs", I said that earlier Nina Simone fills the bill better. This disc is one of the ones I'm talking about. It fills the bill compared to anything; it truly is a classic.

Recorded live at The Village Gate in 1961, this album was a harbinger of many things to come, and a showpiece for Nina Simone's versatility and virtuosity.

Consider her versions of "If He Changed My Name" and "House of the Rising Sun", later made more famous by Roberta Flack and Eric Burdon but undeniably inspired by Ms. Simone. She tells the audience that "Sun" is a folk song and she performs it that way, quietly, with the tinge of shame and guilt that the words of the song imply.

Or consider "Brown Baby." Here she sings of self-affirmation and "Black pride"--before the word "Black" was fashionable, and before Martin Luther King, James Meredith, Medger Evers and Bull Connor had wended their ways into national consciousness. She didn't just inspire an artist or two here: she helped to inspire a movement.

Or consider "Bye Bye Blackbird": No vocals here, just piano with the trio of Al Shackman (g), Chris White (b) and Rob Hamilton (d). They turn this standard into a cross between Dixieland, Bach and Thelonious Monk. It confirms that Ms. Simone was one of the best pianist-chanteusses ever.

And then consider the last cut and the album's highlight, "Children Go Where I Send You." At the beginning, Ms. Simone says to the audience, "Y'all ever been to a revival? You don't know what I'm talkin' 'bout, do ya? Well, you in one now!" And so we are. I can't remember ever hearing a tune that compelled me to sing along--in riffing, scatting harmonies--the first time. And the second, third and fourth times, too. This song lifts you out of your seat; you may not want to drive your car while playing this!

My only complaint with the album is that the piano is out of tune. But maybe that's not such a bad thing. I'm sure that when Alan Lomax recorded Leadbelly, Blind Lemon Jefferson and the like, their guitars weren't perfectly in tune, either. But what got put on celluloid was an American classic nevertheless. And so is this one. A signpost of American music and America of the early '60's, this album should be in the Smithsonian--and your c.d. collection as well. RC



October 15, 2005

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