SORRY - SOLD OUT

AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only, from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head

Analogue Productions - AAPJ 083-45  - 200 Gram Virgin Vinyl   

AAA 100% Analogue - Mastered By Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound

Bethlehem BS 6025 - Limited Edition -   Plated & Pressed at QRP 

The Absolute Sound Super Disc List    TAS Harry Pearson Super LP List

Analogue Productions obtained the master tape, and this LP sounds wonderful - instrumental texture and pitch stability superior to the original or any reissue. If you set aside a slight quibble about going with stereo, no Bethlehem reissue has ever sounded this good." — Recording = 9/10; Music = 9/10 - Dennis D. Davis, Hi-Fi 

MoFi's One-Step aside, 200g vinyl at 45rpm appears to be the ultimate in audiophile formats. On the strength of this edition – which I've heard countless times on standard pressings – one could easily be converted to 45rpm, despite the cost. Even as a regular LP, Simone's 1957 debut is a milestone among jazz vocal albums. Her 'Porgy' would have brought tears to the Gershwins' eyes, while 'My Baby Just Cares For Me' is one of the genre's most celebrated titles. Backed by bass and drums, her piano is as big a star as her voice, while 'You'll Never Walk Alone' will cause you to shudder at the thought of the Liverpool supporters massacring it. - HIFINEWS

Little Girl Blue was Nina Simone's debut release. Bethlehem founder Gus Wildi, taken with the uniquely beautiful quality of her voice, gave her complete control over song selection, backing musicians, arrangements and production of the recording. Nina and her rhythm section recorded the entire album plus three additional tracks in just one session. In her biography of Nina, Nadine Cohodas recounts engineer Irv Greeenbaum's recollection of that day: "Nothing like Nina's artistry had ever happened before ... Her voice and the keyboard playing were so rich and interesting that they could have stood alone."

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.

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 Bach meets Horace Silver and Bobby Timmons. It's also interesting to note that while this was her first recording, the record's grooves evidence an artist who arrives fully formed; many of the traits Simone displayed throughout her career as not only a vocalist and pianist but as an arranger are put on first notice here. "My Baby Just Cares for Me" has a stride shuffle that is extrapolated on in the piano break. Her instrumental and improvising skills are put to good use on Tadd Dameron's "Good Bait," which is transformed into something classical from its original bebop intent. "You'll Never Walk Alone" feels more like some regal gospel song than the Rodgers & Hammerstein show tune it was. Of course, one of Simone's signature tunes was her version of "I Loves You, Porgy," which appears here for the first time and was released as a single.

Her own "Central Park Blues" is one of the finest jazz tunes here, and it is followed with yet another side of Simone's diversity in her beautiful take on the folk-gospel tune "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," with quiet and determined dignity and drama. Another of her instrumentals compositions, "African Mailman," struts proud with deep Afro-Caribbean roots and rhythms.

Engineer — Irv Greenbaum

Recorded late fall, 1957, at Beltone Studio, New York, NY

Musicians:

Nina Simone, piano and vocals
Jimmy Bond, bass
Albert "Tootsie" Heath, drums

    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
    8.      Plain Gold Ring
    9.      You’ll Never Walk Alone
    10.      Porgy
    11.      Central Park Blues