What a nice portrait of the beautiful, soulful, jazzy, political and proud Nina Simone deep in thought. The photo is uncredited, but there’s a good chance it was done by Burt Goldblatt who did many for Bethlehem at this time.

Nina Simone and Her Friends (1959) is actually a compilation album of Bethlehem recording stars including Simone and her label mates Chris Connor and Carmen McCrae. The Nina Simone tracks were recorded in New York City in 1957 with Simone singing and on piano, Jimmy Bond on bass and Al Heath on drums. Her four songs here are “He’s Got the Whole World In His Hands,” “I Loves You Porgy,” “For All We Know” and the instrumental “African Mailman”.

(13 votes, average: 4.54 out of 5)

 Loading ...