Dark Horse Records is proud to release a very limited pressing of Nina Simone’s debut studio album Little Girl Blue, celebrating the album’s 65th anniversary. Originally released in February 1959, Dark Horse’s limited pink vinyl reissue includes a 12x12 insert with an introduction written by Dhani Harrison. Little Girl Blue includes some of Simone’s best-known tracks, including "My Baby Just Cares for Me" and “I Loves You, Porgy,” and even at this early stage in her career, listeners can hear the profound impact she would have on the musical landscape in the ensuing decades.

“Nina Simone at Town Hall” is the first live album by Nina Simone, originally released in 1959. It was her third album of that year and her first live album. The basis for the record was Simone’s performance at the Town Hall, New York, on 12 September 1959. All of the songs performed at the concert are on the album; however, three of the tracks are studio versions cut the following month. On this LP also two bonus tracks recorded during a concert at The Village Gate, New York in 1961.

When this album was recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960, Nina Simone had just had her first Top 20 hit with "I Loves You, Porgy", but the "Porgy" found here is actually a continuation of Gershwin's original version of the story.

Other highlights include "Flo Me La", an African work chant, and "Little Liza Jane", an African American folk song. A truly great live performance from one of the most original voices in 20th century music.

TRACK LISTING

1. Trouble In Mind
2. Porgy
3. Little Liza Jane
4. You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To
5. House Of The Rising Sun
6. Flo Me La
7. Nina's Blues
8. In The Evening By The Moonlight
9. Brown Baby

Recorded in 1985, after a break from recording and time spent living in Barbados and Liberia, Nina’s Back features a rejuvenated Nina Simone reaching out to a wider musical audience. Featuring a number of memorable original Simone compositions, the band includes horns and backup singers for a recording that’s unique in Nina’s catalog.

TRACK LISTING

Side A

It's Cold Out Here
Porgy
I Sing Just To Know That I'm Alive
For A While

Side B

Fodder On Her Wings
Touching And Caring
Saratoga
You Must Have Another Lover

Nina Simone's version of 'Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair' - a Black folk ballad that was associated with colonial workers across the United States - mashed up with Khruangbin's "A Hymn" by MN8. Originally released by Simone in 1959, it looses none of its haunting poignancy or tense mystery when crossed with the modern Balearic-soul supergroup - MN8 retains the hypnotizing, minimalist approach of the originals, while filling empty space with tension and feeling.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: A mash-up so expertly (read: effortlessly) constructed it had a few of us here thinking it was an alternative take on this Nina classic! Who'd have thought Khruangbin and the musical activist would work so harmoniously together? MN8 obviously did!

TRACK LISTING

1. Black Is The Color - MN8 Remix

The great Nina Simone's style encompassed a broad range of musical genres including jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, pop, and classical music. This collection compiles some of her best performances of jazz ballads and blues, the album's A side programmed to feature the ballads, and the B side for the blues.

Among the many highlights are her classic readings of the ballads 'I Loves You Porgy', 'Little Girl Blue', and 'Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair', as well as blues such as 'Trouble in Mind', Billie Holiday's 'Fine and Mellow', and 'Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out'.

As a bonus, one of Simone's biggest hits, 'My Baby Just Cares for Me', has been added to this essential collection.

TRACK LISTING

1. I Loves You Porgy
2. Little Girl Blue
3. Solitude
4. Willow Weep For Me 
5. Memphis In June
6. For All We Know
7. Blue Prelude
8. Black Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair
9. Trouble In Mind
10. Gin House Blues
11. House Of The Rising Sun
12. Fine And Mellow
13. Rags And Old Iron
14. Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out

The Newport Jazz Festival had always brought the best out in Nina Simone. When she took to that famous stage on July 2, 1966, the audience was treated to the full range of her artistry—from the opener, a breathtaking version of “You’ve Got To Learn” to an electrifying performance of her signature protest anthem “Mississippi Goddam”. Unwilling to let her leave the stage, and after sustained applause, her fans were rewarded with the show-stopping encore, “Music For Lovers”. This previously-unknown and unreleased recording showcasing Nina’s exceptional performance makes it clear why hearing Nina Simone in concert was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Liner notes are by Shana L. Redmond, scholar and author. 

TRACK LISTING

You’ve Got To Learn
I Loves You Porgy
Intro To Blues For Mama
Blues For Mama (hey Lawdy Mama)
Be My Husband
Mississippi Goddamn
Music For Lovers

Throughout her career, Nina’s music has inspired audiences of all ages, races, and nationalities. In recent years, social media savvy youth have taken a particular interest in the works of Miss Simone. From the evergreen, feel good track aptly named "Feeling Good" to the mysteriously romantic remake of "I Put A Spell On You" and so many more, Nina’s music is being used in everything from major brand commercials to the everyday user on social networks to convey a feeling and a mood.

Created with the newest generation of Nina Simone fans in mind, Great Women of Song, features the best of the best. Miss Simone's most loved and notable hits assembled in one package. The album is the gift that will keep on giving.

TRACK LISTING

1. Feeling Good (2:54)
2. I Put A Spell On You (2:35)
3. Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (2:46)
4. Ne Me Quitte Pas (3:34)
5. Tell Me More And More And Then Some (3:07)
6. Lilac Wine (4:13)
7. Take Care Of Business (2:05)
8. See-Line Woman (2:35)
9. Four Women (4:24)
10. Wild Is The Wind (6:56)
11. I Loves You, Porgy (2:30)
12. Mississippi Goddam (4:56)

THE TIMES TOP 10 BESTSELLERA GUARDIAN, TELEGRAPH, THE TIMES, IRISH TIMES, ROUGH TRADE, MOJO, CLASH, ROLLING STONE, UNCUT BOOK OF THE YEARFrom award-winning musician and composer Warren Ellis comes the unexpected and inspiring story of a piece of chewing gum. FEATURING AN INTRODUCTION BY NICK CAVE'Warren has turned this memento, snatched from his idol's piano in a moment of rapture, into a genuine religious artefact.'NICK CAVE'Such a mad, happy book about art and music and obsession. I'm so glad I got to read it.

It made the world feel lighter.'NEIL GAIMAN'In praise of meaning-rich relics and magical things. Totally heartwarming project.'MAX PORTER'A unique study of a fan's devotion, of transcendence and of the artistic vocation - it's got depth and great warmth. It's a beautiful piece of work.'KEVIN BARRYI hadn't opened the towel that contained her gum since 2013.

The last person to touch it was Nina Simone, her saliva and fingerprints unsullied. The idea that it was still in her towel was something I had drawn strength from. I thought each time I opened it some of Nina Simone's spirit would vanish.

In many ways that thought was more important than the gum itself. On Thursday 1 July, 1999, Dr Nina Simone gave a rare performance as part of Nick Cave's Meltdown Festival. After the show, in a state of awe, Warren Ellis crept onto the stage, took Dr Simone's piece of chewed gum from the piano, wrapped it in her stage towel and put it in a Tower Records bag.

The gum remained with him for twenty years; a sacred totem, his creative muse, a conduit that would eventually take Ellis back to his childhood and his relationship with found objects, growing in significance with every passing year. Nina Simone's Gum is about how something so small can form beautiful connections between people. It is a story about the meaning we place on things, on experiences, and how they become imbued with spirituality.

It is a celebration of artistic process, friendship, understanding and love. 'This is such a beautiful f*@king book. Thank you, Warren.

I highly recommend this motherf*@ker.'FLEA'A beautifully written book about the power of music and objects. I powered through it in two days.'COURTNEY BARNETT'A moving, inspiration insight into a beautiful mind.'JIM JARMUSCH'The year's most eccentric and joyful musical memoir.'DAILY TELEGRAPH (Books of the year)'[Nina Simone's Gum] is a metaphor for [Ellis'] creativity - the blossoming of a small idea into something bigger and bolder - but also a journey inside the impulsive, improvisatory mind of Warren Ellis, his passions, obsessions and superstitions.' OBSERVER'[A] beautiful, strikingly idiosyncratic book - part memoir, part essay, part conceptual art project, all testament to humans at their strangest and best . .

. [Ellis] sees signifiance where others might not.'MOJO'A glorious piece of object fetishism . .

. Marvel as Ellis' collection of eccentric personal mementos morphs into a celebration of the intangible wonder of music.'UNCUT'Wonderful.' THE TIMES'The most peculiar book I've ever read.' CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAY'Delightful . .

. A joy from start to finish.' BIG ISSUE'A joyous work full of love, connection, creativity and gratitude.' THE SPECTATOR'Completely charming and joyful . .

. glorious.' LA REVIEW OF BOOKS'Beautiful . .

. remarkable.' NEW EUROPEAN

Nina Simone’s story from the late sixties to the nineties can be told through her legendary performances in Montreux. Taking to the Montreux stage for the first time on 16 June 1968 for the festival’s second edition, Simone built a lasting relationship with Montreux Jazz Festival and its Creator and Founder Claude Nobs, which uniqueness, trust and electricity can be clearly felt on the recordings. Simone’s multi-faceted and radical story is laid bare on ‘Nina Simone: The Montreux Years’. From Nina’s glorious and emotional 1968 performance to her fiery and unpredictable concert in 1976, one of the festival’s most remarkable performances ever witnessed, the collection includes recordings from all of her five legendary Montreux concerts – 1968, 1976, 1981, 1987 and 1990.

Featuring rare and previously unreleased material from Claude Nobs’ private collection, Nina Simone devotees worldwide will be thrilled by the inclusion of the powerful I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, poignant and fearless Four Women and Simone’s hauntingly beautiful performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas. A spine-tingling version of Janis Ian’s searing and potent Stars, which Simone covered for the very first time during her 1976 Montreux performance, sits alongside her bold and electrifying re-imagine of Bob Marley’s ballad No Women No Cry in 1990. The collection closes with the encore of Nina Simone’s final Montreux Jazz Festival concert and one of Simone’s most-loved and best-known recordings, the exuberant My Baby Just Cares For Me, showcasing the deep and multidimensional facets of Simone’s life and music.

TRACK LISTING

SIDE ONE
1. Someone To Watch Over Me
2. Backlash Blues
3. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
4. See-Line Woman

SIDE TWO
1. Little Girl Blue
2. Don't Smoke In Bed
3. Stars
4. What A Little Moonlight Can Do

SIDE THREE
1. African Mailman
2. Just In Time
3. Four Women
4. No Woman No Cry

SIDE FOUR
1. Liberian Calypso
2. Ne Me Quitte Pas
3. Montreux Blues
4. My Baby Just Cares For Me

Contains new specially prepared liner notes by Penguin Guide To Jazz writer Brian Morton, and by Paris’ prestigious Jazz Magazine.

“The breath-taking originality of the second half of the show is what makes this album great. Opening with Oscar Brown, Jr.’s “Brown Baby” and then Michael Olatunji’s “Zungo” and delivering a long version of another traditional song “Children, Go Where I Send You”, Simone makes a profound stand on the black musical tradition, drawing on her deep reading in Frantz Fanon’s auto-theory and Leopold Senghor’s ideas on n gritude to create a body of work that transcends jazz styles and critical pigeonholes. She was unique, but only because she drew on multitudes.” Brian Morton

TRACK LISTING

Just In Time
He Was Too Good To Me
House Of The Rising Sun
Bye Bye Blackbird
Black Is The Color Of My True Love’s Hair
Brown Baby
Zungo
If He Changed My Name
Children Go Where I Send You
Summertime [parts 1 & 2]

Nina Simone: The Montreux Years is released as part of a brand new Montreux Jazz Festival and BMG collection series “The Montreux Years”. The collections will uncover legendary performances by the world’s most iconic artists alongside rare and never-before-released recordings from the festival’s rich 55-year history, remastered in superlative audio. Each collection will be accompanied by exclusive liner notes and previously unseen photography.

Nina Simone’s story from the late sixties to the nineties can be told through her legendary performances in Montreux. Taking to the Montreux stage for the first time on 16 June 1968 for the festival’s second edition, Simone built a lasting relationship with Montreux Jazz Festival and its Creator and Founder Claude Nobs, which uniqueness, trust and electricity can be clearly felt on the recordings. Simone’s multi-faceted and radical story is laid bare on ‘Nina Simone: The Montreux Years’. From Nina’s glorious and emotional 1968 performance to her fiery and unpredictable concert in 1976, one of the festival’s most remarkable performances ever witnessed, the collection includes recordings from all of her five legendary Montreux concerts – 1968, 1976, 1981, 1987 and 1990.

Featuring rare and previously unreleased material from Claude Nobs’ private collection, Nina Simone devotees worldwide will be thrilled by the inclusion of the powerful I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, poignant and fearless Four Women and Simone’s hauntingly beautiful performance of Ne Me Quitte Pas. A spine-tingling version of Janis Ian’s searing and potent Stars, which Simone covered for the very first time during her 1976 Montreux performance, sits alongside her bold and electrifying re-imagine of Bob Marley’s ballad No Women No Cry in 1990. The collection closes with the encore of Nina Simone’s final Montreux Jazz Festival concert and one of Simone’s most-loved and best-known recordings, the exuberant My Baby Just Cares For Me, showcasing the deep and multidimensional facets of Simone’s life and music. 

TRACK LISTING

Someone To Watch Over Me (intro)
Backlash Blues
I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
See-Line Woman 
Little Girl Blue (part 1 & 2)
Don't Smoke In Bed
Stars 
What A Little Moonlight Can Do
African Mailman
Just In Time
Four Women
No Woman No Cry
Liberian Calypso
Ne Me Quitte Pas
Montreux Blues 
My Baby Just Cares For Me

From USM's 'Nina Simone: The Philips Years' collection, come the separate LPs. 'I Put a Spell on You' is the singer-songwriter's 1965 album and features some of her best known songs, including the title track, 'Ne Me Quitte Pas' and 'Feeling Good'.

TRACK LISTING

1 I Put A Spell On You 2:36
2 Tomorrow Is My Turn 2:52
3 Ne Me Quitte Pas 3:38
4 Marriage Is For Old Folks 3:33
5 July Tree 2:44
6 Gimme Some 3:02
7 Feeling Good 2:54
8 One September Day 2:51
9 Blues On Purpose 3:20
10 Beautiful Land 1:57
11 You've Got To Learn 2:44
12 Take Care Of Business 2:05

From USM's 'Nina Simone: The Philips Years' collection, come the separate LPs. Nina Simone was one of the best soul-jazz / blues singers of the 20th century. Only someone the likes of Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith had the power to lay a soul bare like she could, as her stripped-down 'Be My Husband' shows. Naked like a field-holler, this song would later capture the imagination of Jeff Buckley and Antony Hegarty.

Also on this record are classics such as 'Nobody Knows When You're Down And Out', originally sung by Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday's signature song 'Strange Fruit', as well as a Nina Simone favorite: 'Sinnerman'. There are few songs that capture the Spirit of religion, redemption, and the fear of God as much as this ten-minute race of a song about a man trying to outrun the Devil. It's no wonder it was used in the key-scene of 'The Thomas Crown Affair' and sampled by the likes of Kanye West, Talib Kweli and Felix da Housecat.

TRACK LISTING

Be My Husband 3:19
Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out 2:35
End Of The Line 2:51
Trouble In Mind 2:37
Tell Me More And More And Then Some 3:05
Chilly Winds Don't Blow 3:59
Ain't No Use 2:35
Strange Fruit 3:26
Sinnerman 10:15

'Nuff Said!' Is an album by jazz, blues and gospel singer / pianist / songwriter Nina Simone. It was recorded in front of a capacity crowd at the Westbury Music Fair in April 7, 1968, just a day after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. The track 'Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)' was written by Simone's bass player Gene Taylor especially for the occasion, and the whole program that night was dedicated in his memory. Elsewhere the set includes classics like 'I Loves You Porgy' and 'Ain't Got No; I Got Life', while 'The Backlash Blues' was penned for Simone by the great Langston Hughes. 

 In 1969, the album was placed on peak 44 in R&B Albums Chart. The album received an Emmy nomination.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. In The Morning
2. Sunday In Savannah
3. The Backlash Blues
4. Please Read Me
5. Gin House Blues
Side B
1. Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)
2. Peace Of Mind
3. Ain't Got No; I Got Life
4. I Loves You Porgy
5. Take My Hand, Precious Lord

Bonus Track:
6. Do What You Gotta Do (Webb)

When this album was recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960, Nina Simone had just had her first Top 20 hit with "I Loves You, Porgy", but the "Porgy" found here (written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields, most famous for "I Can't Give You Anything But Love") is actually a continuation of Gershwin's original version of the story. Other highlights include "Flo Me La", an African work chant, and "Little Liza Jane", an African American folk song.

TRACK LISTING

Side A:
1. Trouble In Mind
2.Porgy
3.Little Liza Jane
4.You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

Side B:
1. Flo Me La
2. Nina's Blues
3. In The Evening By The Moonlight

Recorded in New York in 1967, 'Silk & Soul' is Nina Simone's second album for RCA. Despite arrangements that don't always best suit her voice, this album does contain classics "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free", which would become a Civil Rights anthem and "It Be's That Way Sometimes", written by her brother Sam Waymon. "The Turning Point"' is a song that seems to be about a child making a new friend, but turns out to question the origins of racism.

Ms Simone also takes on Dusty Springfield by covering "The Look Of Love", which was originally featured in the 1966 James Bond spoof Casino Royale. She's greatly inspired by Mozart in the fugue-like "Consummation".

As the sleeve notes on this 1967 LP say, 'Simone is neither all jazz nor all pop; neither all soul or all R&B. She is neither all folk nor all folk protest; neither poetess or balladeer. She is simply Nina Simone, a voice in this wilderness of modernity and industrialized society which cries out to be heard'.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
1. It Be's That Way Sometime
2. The Look Of Love
3. Go To Hell
4. Love O' Love
5. Cherish
Side B
1. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
2. Turn Me On
3. The Turning Point
4. Some Say
5. Consummation