Little Girl Blue (also known as Jazz As Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club) is the debut album by Nina Simone. The album was reissued by Bethlehem in 1992 on CD (Bethlehem 30042), with three additional tracks from the same session: "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", "For All We Know" and "African Mailman".
Little Girl Blue, released in 1957, was Nina Simone's first recording, originally issued on the Bethlehem label. Backed by bassist Jimmy Bond and Albert "Tootie" Heath, it showcases her ballad voice as one of mystery and sensuality and showcases her up-tempo jazz style with authority and an enigmatic down-home feel that is nonetheless elegant. The album also introduced a fine jazz pianist. Simone was a solid improviser who never strayed far from the blues. Check the opener, her reading of Duke Ellington's "Mood Indigo," which finger-pops and swings while keeping the phrasing deep-blue. It is contrasted immediately with one of the -- if not the -- definitive reads of Willard Robison's steamy leave-your-lover ballad "Don't Smoke in Bed." The title track, written by Rodgers & Hart, features "Good King Wenceslas" as a classical prelude to one of the most beautiful pop ballads ever written. It is followed immediately by the funky swing in "Love Me or Leave Me" with a smoking little piano solo in the bridge where Bachmeets Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons.
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
1. Plain Gold Ring
2. You'll Never Walk Alone
3. I Loves You Porgy
4. Central Park Blues
5. He's Got The Whole World In His Hands
6. For All We Know
7. African Mailman
4. Little Girl Blue
😊 !
ReplyDelete