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Mood Indigo: BMG Reissues Nina Simone's Debut "Little Girl Blue" on CD and LP

June 2, 2021 By Joe Marchese 3 Comments

Nina Simone Little Girl Blue

BUY NOW FROM AMAZON.COM

BMG is continuing to celebrate the legacy of late trailblazer Nina Simone with an upcoming reissue of her 1959 debut album for Bethlehem Records, Little Girl Blue.  The remastered stereo album will arrive on CD, LP, and digital services on August 13.

Though it didn't see release until February 1959, Little Girl Blue - so named for the Rodgers and Hart standard introduced in their Broadway musical Jumbo - was actually recorded in one session near the end of 1957.  Although Simone was relatively new to performing and not yet 25 years old, she took to the studio with command, intensity and passion.

If the repertoire on Little Girl Blue was, for the most part, reflective of the typical jazz songbook of the day, Simone's treatment of it was anything but standard.  The singer-pianist, born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina, spellbound audiences by bringing classical influences to jazz and popular standards.  She also imbued these sophisticated Great American Songbook works with the earthiness and intensity of the blues, and the fervor of gospel.  She demanded creative control from the start, a testament to her clear sense of self from the very beginning.  Her small but significant trove of recordings for Bethlehem - just this album and three more tracks - were intimate: either solo piano or in a trio with Jimmy Bond on bass and Albert "Tootie" Heath on drums.  In any setting, though, her voice - unmistakably smoky, husky, and piercing in its quest for the emotional truth - was the star.

On Little Girl Blue, Simone made a pair of songs closely associated with another impeccable stylist, Peggy Lee, her own (the torch lament "He Needs Me" and steamy "Don't Smoke in Bed") - no small feat in and of itself.  She brought cool insouciance to a shuffling "My Baby Cares Just for Me" which would gain a new life in the 1980s when it was used in a Chanel No. 5 commercial; a subsequent video was played in heavy rotation on MTV.  Little Girl Blue also featured her quietly intense rendition of George and Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward's "I Loves You, Porgy."  The aria from Porgy and Bess would become one of Simone's signature songs and her only top 20 hit.  But virtually every track on the album is a classic, from her dark, brooding reinvention of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" to her seemingly effortless reading of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo."  Simone contributed one original composition, the instrumental "Central Park Blues."

BMG's reissue has been produced by Omnivore Recordings' Cheryl Pawelski and features new liner notes by author-historian Daphne A. Brooks.  The rollout of the release began yesterday - the start of African-American Music Appreciation Month - with a digital release of the audio as remastered by Michael Graves.  It's available in both high-resolution and standard download/streaming audio. Then, on July 16, a clear blue 180-gram vinyl pressing will be released exclusively at Barnes & Noble locations and online.  Finally, on August 13, the CD and 180-gram black vinyl pressings will be out everywhere.   Kevin Gray has cut the vinyl.

Look for the remastered stereo Little Girl Blue at the links below!

Nina Simone, Little Girl Blue (Bethlehem BS 6028, 1959 - reissued BMG, 2021)

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada  
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
B&N Exclusive LP: Barnes and Noble

  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 Cares Just for Me
  7. Good Bait
  8. Plain Gold Ring
  9. You'll Never Walk Alone
  10. I Loves You, Porgy
  11. Central Park Blues

Categories: News Formats: CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl Genre: Jazz, Popular Standards/Vocal, R&B/Soul Tags: Nina Simone

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Joe Marchese

JOE MARCHESE (Editor) joined The Second Disc shortly after its launch in early 2010, and has since penned daily news and reviews about classic music of all genres. In 2015, Joe formed the Second Disc Records label. Celebrating the great songwriters, producers and artists who created the sound of American popular song, Second Disc Records, in conjunction with Real Gone Music, has released newly-curated collections produced by Joe from iconic artists such as Johnny Mathis, Bobby Darin, Laura Nyro, Melissa Manchester, Chet Atkins, and many others. He has contributed liner notes to reissues from a diverse array of artists, among them Nat "King" Cole, Paul Williams, Lesley Gore, Dusty Springfield, B.J. Thomas, The 5th Dimension, Burt Bacharach, The Mamas and the Papas, Carpenters, Perry Como, Rod McKuen, Doris Day, Jackie DeShannon, and Andy Williams, and has compiled releases for talents including Robert Goulet and Keith Allison of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Over the past two decades, Joe has also worked in a variety of capacities on and off Broadway as well as at some of the premier theatres in the U.S., including Lincoln Center Theater, George Street Playhouse, Paper Mill Playhouse, Long Wharf Theatre, and the York Theatre Company. He has felt privileged to work on productions alongside artists such as the late Jack Klugman, Eli Wallach, Arthur Laurents, Betty Comden and Adolph Green. In 2009, Joe began contributing theatre and music reviews to the print publication The Sondheim Review, and in 2012, he joined the staff of The Digital Bits as a regular contributor writing about film and television on DVD and Blu-ray. Joe currently resides in the suburbs of New York City.

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Comments

  1. Endre says

    June 2, 2021 at 3:38 pm

    Looking forward to this release. The most amazing thing about this record to me is this: “ was actually recorded in one session”. In ONE session ! ! !

    Reply
  2. zally says

    June 3, 2021 at 8:43 am

    why is/has bmg been so lackadaisical about this reissue program. the audience that once would of appreciated this has passed on while others have no interest in this at all. their is a small amount that do tho.. just like the recent impluse reissues it seems that those who are in control have NO clue .

    Reply
  3. Dirk says

    June 7, 2021 at 11:23 pm

    Does BMG now own the Bethlehem Catalog? Any chance we will see the two Johnny Hartman albums remastered and reissued?

    Reply

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