Nina

Now here is someone's work I would definitely take to that Desert Island. As part of my What The FLAC project, where I am revisiting and ripping some of my old collection of vinyl music, I came upon a bunch of her albums, mostly the 1960s Philips releases, with some even earlier and some into the 70s, and knew that I needed to start my project with Nina Simone.

I was first turned on to Nina Simone by a college girlfriend, who lived in New Jersey, and had seen her live in nearby New York City and Atlantic City. A couple of years later, shortly after moving to Los Angeles where I was alone and didn't know a soul, I took comfort from my clock radio that seemed to play constantly, day and night. I had just made the remarkable discovery of a 24-hour jazz station -- we didn't have those back on the farm -- and I fell asleep one night, only to awaken at about 3am to the incredible sounds that you can hear now:



Sinnerman went on to be featured in the movie soundtrack for The Thomas Crown Affair, incidentally. You absolutely should check out anything you can find by Nina Simone. She does a remarkable job with Billie Holiday classics, and started covering Bob Dylan, among others, since the 60s.

Nina was a classically-trained pianist and got her start in North Carolina church-going music. She passed away about five years ago; Nina Simone, sometimes known as the High Priestess of Soul. Around the time of her death, I believe that I heard that a biopic was in the making -- she certainly did seem to have a life that would warrant the big screen -- but I never learned what came of it. Maybe someone can bring me up to date on that.