Nina Simone’s combination of classical training, smokey-alto vocal delivery and the influence of modern jazz made her a novel and inspiring jazz singer and instrumentalist. Simone's many talents are on full display on 1959's Little Girl Blue, her debut for the Bethlehem label which launched an unrivaled career, and finds The High Priestess of Soul wonderfully setting the mood on vocals and piano while handling all of the arrangements and also offering up her own composition with "Central Park Blues." 

As the liner notes say: "There are plenty of musical singers who vocalize well and have an individual style but who never cross that thin and hard-to-define line that separates a good "pop" style from one that is jazz. The first few notes of this record will immediately confirm Nina's jazz credentials. As she said, "You got to get to people." That she does with a vibrant and husky contralto that tonally sounds like a blend of an unlikely combination of Marian Anderson and Ma Rainey."

Little Girl Blue documents Nina Simone's unparalleled and idiosyncratic musical persona at a particularly vibrant, formative stage, and helped launch her on a trajectory with more than its share of personal and professional trials and triumphs.

Nina Simone (vocals, piano)

Jimmy Bond (bass)

Al 'Tootsie' Heath (drums)

• Hybrid Stereo SACD from Analogue Productions

• Mastered by Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound in New York

• Compatible with all SACD and CD players