Yo, what's up Adam?
Yo, what's up Peter? Man, it's finally fall,
Dude. It's about time. Yeah.
I'm so over summertime at this point.
It's been hot and humid. I'm done with that.
I don't wanna think about summertime. Yeah, I gotcha.
I don't wanna play anything about
summertime. I'm just - What do you love
About fall so much though? Oh,
I mean, what's not to love? I love the falling leaves.
I love a nice sweater. I love sipping on a delicious PSL.
Well, what the f**k is that?
A pumpkin spice latte. Oh. Ooh.
Yeah. I don't like that. Oh, but Peter, yeah.
Speaking about seasons, I've been thinking,
what if we played our favorite song for each season?
I like it. But can we do it kind of fast uptempo?
'cause we got a podcast to get to. Yeah, I got you. Okay.
Ah, that's fall falling autumn leaves.
Now we're in winter now.
Spring. Wow. Calendar is really moving.
All right. Hold up. We're back to somewhere already.
We gotta slow it down. Come on, man. It's summertime.
The living is easy.
Just when I thought I was out, pulls me back in.
I am
Anna Maness. And I'm Peter Martin.
And you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Music.
Explored. Explored, brought to you today by Open Studio.
Go to openstudiojazz.com
for all, you jazz lesson needs.
Yes, sir. I went for it. Peter, you you went
for it. You and you
landed it.
Sometimes I go big, sometimes I go small. I went big.
You went big. Yeah. It's all good, man. How you doing?
I'm doing pretty good. How about you?
Good, good, good man.
We've been, this has been a really fun, uh, season. We're
on a bit of a run. We're
on a bit of a run. Don't jinx it, buddy.
This will not be the end of the run.
Hopefully this is the beginning of a new even better
run. Yeah. I mean, it's,
it's like I'm, it's such a beautiful,
uh, reminder to me. Newsflash,
there's a lot of great music in the world.
This much we know. But I mean, to be able to have, like,
it's such an honor and a pleasure to be able
to consume something like we're doing this week.
Something like we've been doing every week. Yeah.
We've been hitting some bangers.
So, this is probably gonna be a little bit on the lesser
known, not Nina Simone.
Yeah. Probably on the, on more on the big stars
that we've had, especially kind of multi-generational now.
But in terms of records,
this is a little bit less on the radar,
but to me it's so exciting to know about, you know,
just the ones that, that I know about.
That we know about for sure. I think all of the,
the un the hidden gems and stuff that
are out there. Oh, I mean, this is gonna be
an endless journey.
And by the way, I just wanna thank everybody who's putting
comments on YouTube, comments on Spotify.
Oh, I can't keep up with them. With a lot of recommendations
for some really good albums.
We got, just in the last week, we had someone recommend
that self-titled Jocko Pistorius album.
Oh, we gotta do that.
Uh, we had someone recommend something from Bud Powell,
which we gotta get to.
Yeah. At a certain point we had someone recommend Concert
by the Sea from Rol Gardner,
which I think we might have done early, early days
or a version of it, but we should Right.
Revisit it. 'cause it's, it's endlessly
Not in the pot atrium.
Can we call this the pod atrium?
The Atrium. Atrium. But, uh, we also had someone re
It's not for Atrium. No.
We had someone recommend maybe doing some Prince,
which stay tuned for some Prince.
That's on the list. It's on the list. It's coming.
Of course. So we have a lot of great stuff coming up,
but please put some more recommendations in the comments
because we want to hear from you what you want
to hear us hear. That's
Right. And we wanna get
hip to stuff out here.
We're trying to be hip. Right. Um,
Well, you are. Yeah.
But today we have none other than Nina Simone
at Town Hall.
Live at, I always say this is live at Town Hall. I, yeah.
But it's actually at Town Hall
Simone at Town Hall. Nina
Simone at Town Hall. Yeah.
And every time I google this, I put live at town hall
or search and it corrects you and Well, it still comes up.
Up You mean up. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but man, what a great album.
This is a great choice. Yeah. A little different from us.
It's from 1959. It's a year we hardly ever talk about, about
That's the big connector for us.
I think it's a little bit off the beaten path. I mean, is
1959 or 1971 more in our wheelhouse?
It's those two. I mean, either one.
It's either those two years
and we're kind of leaning a little bit towards
79 80 lately too.
Yeah. So we have our favorite years.
There are, there are clusters.
Peter, I don Dunno if you noticed this,
there are clusters in music of,
I know it comes in waves.
63 59. Yep.
Uh, 69, 71, 72.
Well, now you're just naming Great years. Come
On, man. Yeah. 75. There's
some good years out there. Yeah.
Um, Lot of good years, Peter. Lot of good years. Okay.
Boomer. Alright.
Before she was Nina Simone, Eunice Wayman, dreamed
of becoming America's first black classical concert pianist.
Hold on. Can we pause just a little bit on just how great
of a name Eunice Wayman is?
I know Eunice Wayman.
I mean, Nuni Mos is possibly a
little bit better. Yes. But it's
Different. Eunice Simone. It's evocative
of romance and sparkle.
But, but Eunice Wayman I know, rolls off the tongue.
Eunice from childhood.
She was trained in Bach and Chopin among others.
She devoted her life to that pursuit.
She really loved, you know, classical music
seemingly since she was first introduced,
which is at a very young age.
Um, and then, you know, there,
there's a lot of lore about this.
Um, she got dreams, interestingly enough to go
to the Curtis Institute
of Music in Philadelphia at a certain point.
Yeah. Um, as opposed to Juilliard.
Well, she ended up going to Juilliard.
Well, let's talk a little bit about, if people don't know
what the Curtis Institute is Yeah.
Why don't we tell 'em what that is?
It's like kind of the, like,
if Juilliard is the Harvard Yeah.
Then Curtis is like, what?
It's like the, what's the place Harry Potter one.
The, it's the Hogwarts. It's, it's the Hogwarts.
It's hidden. It's like hidden. And it's at a high level.
Well, they have like a handful
of students every year. I, it
Used to be, they'd only have one
or two for each instrument, I think. Yeah. Was
Accepted. And some people go when
they're children. Yes.
Like you go when you're very young.
Uh, our, uh, one of our dear friends,
Erin Schreiber from the St.
Louis Symphony. That's right.
Went to Curtis when she was, but, and
Michael too. Violas Michael,
Michael Casimir
Violisy there, went to Curtis as well.
Yeah. And it is very, very concentrated.
It is for only the top players in the world, apparently.
And it's, uh, it's an incredible resource.
And it was Nina's dream Yeah.
To go there. It was her dream to go there.
Even to the point her family moved
to Philadelphia in anticipation of her being accepted.
She was famously rejected, did not get accepted in.
And there's a whole, uh, story and controversy about that.
But the idea is like, she did end up going to Juilliard,
but then pretty soon thereafter, she was, um, working kind
of against the wishes of her family.
She came up in a real religious family. Mm-hmm.
Her mother, in fact was, was I believe a Methodist,
um, preacher.
And so she was in church a lot.
She was very well versed in the Southern
Methodist Church tradition out of North Carolina in terms
of like, the repertoire
of playing piano in the church from a very young age.
Uh, singing a lot.
But she always really fashioned herself originally
as a pianist, and specifically classical.
She definitely had exposure to jazz,
but that was not her dream coming up, you know?
Not, and she's not the only musician
that we've talked about on this pod
or a musician that even hosts the pod that went for a year
or two to Juilliard and then became a jazz musician.
Right. Yeah. Miles Davis went to Juilliard. Yeah.
And became of course, miles Davis. Yep.
And our own Peter Martin spent a what year? 2, 2, 3.
Yeah. 1, 1, 3 3, 3 semesters. You know, at
Juilliard when you yourself was but a child.
Yes. And then ended up being in jazz musician. Of
Course there was. It's, it's
Nina Simone, it's Miles Davis,
it's Peter Martin. We know this Right
Buddy. You're gonna see in the
comments.
Man you're not too far off. Wynton Marsalis.
Yeah. He spent a year, And this is by the way,
before Julie McBride,
I just remembering this
Is before all of you, this is
before there was like a Juilliard Jazz program.
Right. You're not up there like learning bebop.
You're up there playing classical music. Right,
Right. For sure.
Um, yeah.
So, so this record, she had a couple records out right
before this, um, and actually had a really big hit.
We're gonna check that out in just a second.
But basically, I mean, she, she even said like,
she didn't like this idea of being a jazz singer.
So this is interesting. We're gonna talk
about is she a jazz singer?
And is this a jazz record?
It's really a great topic of conversation,
Actually. Oh, I thought you were about
to commit in advance. I
Like it. No, no. I think, I
think it's up for discussion.
First of all. You know, I love a category
and I love to put an artist in a box.
It's one of my all time favorite things to do
A musical box. But
I think this is a discussion
that we can have about like, I mean, like you said,
she herself didn't want to be this thing
that people were categorizing her.
Right. And she ended up making this whole career.
Was she a jazz musician? Right.
I don't know if that's an
answerable question, honestly know.
Well, she said, you know, critics labeled her a jazz
singer at, which was a, a, a label that she despised.
Yeah. She spoke out about, about that a lot. Awesome.
Um, and she in fact said to quote,
her calling me a jazz singer was a way
of ignoring my musical background
because I didn't fit into white ideas of
what a black performer should be.
So, like, she was really ahead of her time.
Like, I think when we talk about now, it's like,
why would you, like, it's hard for people,
especially younger folks, I including kind of like my age
and below to understand like the derogatory Yeah.
Like there was a duality of calling somebody a jazz singer.
On the one hand, it was, I mean, you're in town hall,
you're talking about Ella Fitzgerald was revered,
had played in Carnegie Hall.
I mean, like, there, there was a certain status.
It wasn't like jazz was just, you know, in the brothels
or something like it was maybe 40 years before.
But there was still a stigma attached to that.
There was a, a pecking order of culture.
I think we talked with the intelligentsia, perhaps,
If I may. Yes. A
little sidetrack. We talk about this
amongst ourselves about the mentality that a lot
of quote unquote jazz musicians have,
and how it can put you in a bit of a box that ignores
some commercial advantages
that you might have if you don't
categorize yourself so narrowly.
Right. And I just wanna point out, this is a theme
of this show over the years,
how many greats like on the Mount Rushmore
of the music we have
that do not wanna be labeled as jazz musicians.
Right. Talking about Miles Davis, duke Ellington.
Duke Ellington, yeah. John Coltrane, Charles Mingus.
Like all of these people don't want Yeah. Nicholas Peyton.
Nicholas Peyton. There's so many, so, so many
that do not want that word associated
with their music that they're making.
Yeah. And I think that tells us a story about
the feelings around the world.
Now, obviously there's the modern jazz quartet
are Blake the jazz messenger.
Mm-hmm. There are people who are embracing Yeah.
Uh, the sort of, uh, category categorization of that.
But what I love most about this album
and Nina's career in general, is I think ultimately she,
she sort of manifests, for lack of a better word, the fact
that she's not a jazz musician.
Right. And becomes this huge commercially successful,
viable cultural icon that sort of like, uh, goes past
where most jazz musicians are willing to go.
Right. You know? Right. And I think it's
by freeing her mind from, uh, uh, the box
that people wanna put her in, that she's able to do this.
Yeah. And I mean, like later on, um, you know,
with her writings and her and her political activism
and her compositions,
and just the stands that she took up to the point
of like leaving the US and,
and doing all these different things.
She under, like, she was so ahead of her, uh, time in terms
of understanding this thing
that she says about didn't fit into white ideas of
what a black performer should be.
And I don't wanna dwell on that too much.
And I know it's a harsh thing for some people.
It's very relevant to the situation.
It's very relevant. And, and like for us now to say like,
oh, of course you like, people didn't really, like,
there's a lot of implications that maybe don't,
don't apply thankfully as much today.
But at that time, you know, some people could say like,
what do you mean she's being presented
as the headliner at town hall?
But like, she understood to be able to speak out
and to have a nuanced understanding of that,
and as you say, to being able in some ways to be able
to leapfrog Yeah.
Above even the box, the jazz players or,
or even classical player.
There was definitely, like, there was,
there was a bitterness perhaps that she had
or at least expressed I'd see in interviews, um, for her not
to be able to pursue this classical career that she loved
so much, but she also turned it into like,
she ultimately was able
to put her full artistry out there into the world.
Yeah. Um, at different times.
And then I we're gonna talk about it,
but I think this is kind of just the
beginning of that in a way.
Like the true artist of what Nina Simone was.
I mean, you're already hearing it,
beautiful voice, but she's doing a lot.
She's doing all a few of her own compositions on here.
A lot of standards kind of, she's in the box,
but she can already hear what she can be.
And then a couple years later, of course,
she's really becoming, you know who she is.
Yeah. I, no, I think it's totally relevant.
And by the way, this is this idea that she's, she's, uh,
supposing here of, you know, the being put in a box, um,
by white critics or white writers about what a a,
a black musician could be is not even unique to black music.
I mean, it's very, very common, especially at this time.
And like you said, it's sort of bent a little bit better,
even though there's still huge problems all around.
But even like, you know, uh, uh, quote unquote,
bluegrass musicians talk about this.
Like, they're just playing music that they grew up around
and they're trying to, some people are,
would talk like this, like,
just play the music they wanna play.
Yes. And then we hear something if you're not familiar
with it and you wanna categorize it,
or you could even go, you know,
like talking about like Japanese music.
And I've heard musicians talk about, like,
I'm more than just this thing that you're trying
to culturally define me by.
I'm an artist trying to make art. Yeah.
With my culture attached to it, it becomes, I think, more
of a, a of a issue of art
and commerce where, uh, it's up to the record labels
to try to sell these albums.
And the best way to do that is to say,
if you like this, check this out.
Right. And the way they do that is very, very heavy handed
and can honestly be a little bit suffocating if you're
thinking about yourselves in trying to like, serve these,
these, you know, mechanisms of commerce with the artist.
Absolutely. It's tough, man. It's tough. I mean,
It's a little, I Get it. But
It's tough. Yeah. It's kind of like
a, like a high cultural,
high culture, crass taste maker Yeah.
Kind of a thing where it's like, yes, this is great,
but it's kind of like, yes, this is
what you're gonna consume
Saying for us to understand you, Nina Simone, we have to,
we have to lump you in with this other stuff
that we understand what this is.
Right. Even though you don't,
you're, you're not going for that.
Right. Right. It's a very common thing. Right.
So what happened was, she, she went to Juilliard, I guess
for a year, or maybe it was for a summer.
She had been at Juilliard and then she on a scholarship,
but she needed to make some money
so she could go back when the Curtis thing, uh,
disappointment happened.
Um, so she was teaching, she's living in Philadelphia,
she's teaching piano, but she got a chance
to play in a club in Atlantic City.
Atlantic City at that time was a lot of like, you know,
piano bars and jazz clubs and that kind of thing.
Show clubs, whatever you wanna call it.
And that was gonna pay a lot better
and, um, better than the teaching.
And she got a gig playing at the Midtown Bar
and Grill in Atlantic City.
Ever been there? No, no. First should we go?
But basically she thought
she was just gonna, yeah, let's do it. Make
A field trip from Midtown. Yeah.
Um, I've been to Atlantic City.
I don't think it's quite as booming as back then.
It's, it's, it's changed a little bit.
Shout out Northern New Jersey.
Hard to get to, to, um,
but the thing was like,
she thought she was just gonna be playing piano.
And the guy, typical club bar is like, you gotta sing too.
And so that's really when she started singing
and like, outside of church
and whatever, limited stuff that she was doing,
but very much a religious background.
So it was like she, that was part of the reason,
if not the reason she changed her name was
to disguise it from her family, you know?
Oh man. And because they, they were religious.
Like this was the devil's music,
you know, doing this kind of stuff.
That's what it was considered at that time.
Um, so she started doing, she was performing, I Loves Porgy
of course, from, uh, George
and Ira Gershwin Black is the Color.
Some of these songs, uh,
because they were the, they were popular songs of the time.
And so when she ended up getting her first record contract
and recording, um, I believe it was in 57
or 58, it actually didn't come out till 1959
when they did this concert earlier in the year.
But she did, I love Por it ends up being her biggest hit.
And so we're just gonna listen to that.
This is not on this, this record,
but this is what a lot of people had heard.
Like, likely the people that came to the concert
had heard this. This was on Billboard.
Like this is a top one
hundred hit, which is crazy.
It's awesome.
I love you,
don't
you Me, I
with you Forever.
So that's on Little Girl Blue that came out in 1958.
But this song as a single came out in just in May
of 1959.
And it actually went to number 18 on the billboard pop
charts. Number two on the r&b charts.
Listen to this, this is just a straight up jazz trio.
Her playing on this is beautiful.
If you can keep me.
It's just, it's a very straight
yet nuanced reading of this. Right.
I hear a little bit because she's 25, right?
When she makes this mm-hmm. This recording. Yeah.
Even, and she sounds like, you know, 35,
like 40, like a, a fully formed adult.
It's a little Samara Joy0ish in the,
in the sort of maturity in her voice.
Not exactly the same quality,
but like, just where you're like,
how can this person so young sound
so, you know, uh, uh, like she's lived
so much life, you know. I just
can't get over how did this get
on the billboard pop charts? Can we go
back to that time? It was a different day,
but different day altogether. Yeah.
So that was, so I, I, I totally hear that influence.
And we're gonna talk with later about diff all the
vocalists, which could be every vocalist in some way since
then, in a lot of genres, very influential,
maybe the most influential vocalists since this time.
Like, uh, blues rock, uh, pop, you know, jazz.
Musically, but also in the
way that she handled her career.
Yes. And her adventurous spirit too. Yeah. These things.
But certainly an influence on Nina Simone was this,
this is live in 1957. This is Sarah Vaughn
The greatest. When's the Sarah
Vaughan. Buddy? It's
coming. Build
a
stairway to the Ssars.
So this was out there in the world,
Right.
And climb that stairway
To the stars. That's live in Mr.
Kelly's Chicago, Illinois. Of course, 1957. I would
Love to play for Sarah Vaughn.
Wouldn't it be so much fun
to be Sarah Vaughn's piano player for a minute?
That would be nice. But let's get in the record.
So live at Town Hall, she's got some hits. She's out there.
The promoter, they're, they're putting her on the town hall
stage, which was a big deal.
This is crazy. So Ben Riley,
fantastic drummer, one of my favorite.
I actually got a chance to play with him back in the back
when he was still around in the nineties, which is great.
Like such a, an honor
and like to be a little bit connected with
that, with Thelonious Monk.
He famously played in the, one
of the best groups with Monk for many years.
You're so old. Dude. I am old af Wilber Ware
on Bass. Wilber Ware.
Amazing. Chicago's Finest played with monks. Oh, yeah.
We were talking about, so Rollins
Right? We talked about Wilbur
Ware last week Yeah.
In that, uh, in that Amon Tobin track.
Yes. Um, and they were both, you know, together
and separately played with Monk.
They were actually, were both playing
with Monk at this time.
The crazy thing about this,
guess when they met Nina Simone
when they first played with her?
You want me to legitimately guess? Yes.
Well, I'll say because of the way you're phrasing it,
It, I about the rhythm section bass drummer.
Yeah, yeah. No, I got it. I would Riley Wilber,
the way you're setting this up, probably earlier that day.
No. As the curtain rose, they did not rehearse.
They didn't even, they literally, I mean,
I sourced this into them.
Who talking about I, Hey man,
Wait, wait, wait, wait. What?
They met right
before, like, that's how,
how thrown together this thing was.
Oh my God. Which is really gonna
be crazy as we listen to this.
Have you ever done that before?
Yeah, but not when it came. Sounded like this.
No. Like, and then it's on our live record.
No, of course not like this.
This was another time, man. So let's, let's, for
The love of Jeff, just
Thinking of that, let's jump right into the first track.
Black is the Color of My True Love's Hair.
And I believe this song is like some kind of old
Yeah. It's a Scottish
or Norwegian.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It's, it's an old, uh,
Northern European folk song. And
We have nothing on the, like how this came to Nina Simone
or how she ended up doing it.
But it's a beautiful way to start the record.
I mean, you hear the classical chops from
The beginning. Right.
Well, her,
throughout her tone output is ridiculously beautiful.
How do you feel about the recording quality
Of this? I don't
love it, be honest.
But there is a vibe to it, I guess.
Yeah.
Of my true
so soft.
And
So this is incredible track.
Beautiful. And I was just thinking like, you know, one thing
that Nina, Simone, Simone brings,
and we're gonna get into some jazzy stuff, jazzier stuff.
It's, it's an interesting kind
of different styles on this record,
but one thing she really brings to the party
that if she was a true, I mean, she is a true jazz singer.
Well, but she's not coming from like, that's one.
Not according to her. Right, exactly.
That's not, that's not what she's coming from.
That's one thing that she can do among other things.
But she has this, she has this ability that's harder for us
as jazz pianists especially, um, to just play the tri
and then go down there and like to really connect with this
folk song, with the essence,
very diatonic kind of way of playing.
Like we would be, and she gets into a little bit of like,
the second time she kind of goes to a suss, which is nice,
but she lays it out.
Whereas almost any other jazz pianist, we,
we would, we'd be all like,
You know, It sounds
like some Peter Martin s**t right there.
Yeah. Which I like. But, um, she has so many different,
like, lenses with which she can look at this music.
So she can start with the very simple voice.
You know, the, the, the control
with the vibrato and stuff is stunning.
You actually hear this all over the album.
She, she treats it as if
how a classical musician would treat like,
would respect the harmony of it in a way that you're right.
I think jazz musicians would want to Yeah.
Put their own spin on.
But she, I think it's absolutely perfect. Yeah.
That accompaniment there. Yeah.
Playing a chord and letting that beautiful piano ring out.
Yep. And then, uh, singing those phrases in between.
I think it's exactly what the song calls for.
And I love the triads that she's doing there.
I think they're absolutely gorgeous. And can I just say,
like, from the, what stands out from this album,
because it's a live album, right?
Yeah. And it's not as well recorded as what we just heard,
even on Little Girl Blue
and what of course we're gonna hear later on in her career
with how good, um, her voice is gonna be recorded.
But she is gifted with, uh, a couple of instruments.
Like her hands are her, her classical technique
that she has her piano technique Yeah.
I think is really special. Oh, yeah.
And we don't hear it a lot in jazz pianists, honestly.
Right. Like, the way that she produces a tone.
We just had a classical pianist in
here yesterday, so I'm thinking about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot. We had Daniel Anastasio in here
and made some stuff with him, and he was talking a lot about
that tradition of creating tone on the, on the keyboard.
And you could just hear the, the sort of like, uh, she's a,
she's a really, uh,
sophisticated keyboardist Yeah.
In that, like her control over that, over those triads,
even when she's doing something simple as so great.
It almost comes out more on the really simple
Stuff. It does. You
know, it does.
Like, that's where you can really appreciate the high
level of, of technical
Skill. The, the voicing, not
the chord she's playing,
but how she's voicing. Exactly. The notes in
There. The touch, the
Touch. And then the second instrument
that she was gifted with.
And I don't mean this as like, she didn't work
for these things, but I I'm saying like, these are,
it the kind of like they are
natural gifts that she has Yeah.
Is like, the quality of her voice is so unique. Yeah.
Like, she doesn't sound like that's a
Contralto. Did you know that?
Well, but she doesn't sound like a
trained opera singer at all.
No. And she also kind of doesn't sound like Sarah Vaughn.
Right. She sounds like
You hear those influences. You hear the influence
Voice, but both of those Yeah.
But her voice is her from the start. Yes.
From right here when she's 25, 26 years old.
Like it's sounds so her and so, so honest, so different.
Oh my gosh. And vulnerable. Yeah. And confident. Yeah.
And it's really special From the opening notes
of this album, you just feel like she is like,
like some other vocalists
that we've heard in the show recently, I'm thinking
of like Erika Badu we talked about,
but like, she sets a vibe with this.
Yeah. That is more than just a music nerd's paradise. Yeah.
It is a human connection. It's very special.
Yeah. And I think maybe not having that baggage of,
you know, I mean, certainly she'd heard Ella Fitzgerald,
I'm sure, and
Sarah Vaughn to a certain degree, but everybody
Had Yeah. But I mean, like in
her religious family, if they're like,
that's the devil's music, you
know, probably not listen to it a lot.
You know? So she wasn't growing up with that.
Like, I'm trying to be, that I'm trying
to imitate them or whatever.
Perhaps I'm projecting, I mean,
I'm doing a little improv now,
a little philosophical improv.
But perhaps she was able to get the essence of
who she was quicker than others because of that.
And by the way, the, the, the selection too black is the
color of my true love's hair, uh,
is a really sophisticated choice Yes.
To open this album with,
I'm not sure if she opened the show with it.
Right. But probably. Um,
but it means something different Yes.
When she sings it than when a Scottish
or Norwegian person sings it.
Do you know what I mean? Like, this means, how
Could a Norwegian sing it? Don't
they all have blonde hair? That's,
Oops. You can't
say that anymore. But, uh, no.
You know what I mean? Like, that's
a really beautiful blonde hair.
Like she's already commenting on something. Yes.
She's already has something to say, which is very, very, uh,
promising for the rest of her career,
as we will later find out.
Yeah. Um, okay. Let's go on to track number two.
So for now, for something entirely different. Okay.
Um, the diversity of, of like styles,
even though this is all piano trio with vocals, you know,
it's the jazz trio with, with the vocal singer,
but there's such a diversity of styles and grooves.
We've already heard that from the first track to this.
This is one of the more kind
of like swinging or straighter ones.
I always love this tune. Exactly Like
You man, Jimmy ue. Jimmy
Ue killing it. RIP shadow.
Yeah. 1930.
You know, first, I mean, I think the first big kind of hit,
or people hearing this, especially in the jazz
style, was Louis Armstrong.
Yeah. But everybody recorded this. So let's check this out.
And we're gonna get, oh, let me start this again.
Just because that first chord, maybe it was fading in,
but I love the way that this is some exciting stuff.
And should we be keeping in mind too that,
that Wilbur Ware and Ben Riley
have no idea what's about to happen? No.
No, no. So that's why there's a lot of these like intros
or kind of extended and stuff.
'cause they didn't rehearse, they didn't have,
She's teaching them the song She's teaching.
It's like, this is the vibe. This is the groove.
F*****g not. And there's some funny little
things that happen, man.
Nuts. They go along like pros with it. It's so good.
That almost sounds like inside the piano, perhaps.
It does sound a little bit Like that.
And she's tapping.
She's giving them the temp. Yeah.
They don't know what's about to happen.
But this is definitely one of those kind
of standards you could just call it, you know,
good players are gonna know it.
Woo.
Yeah. Man. Her swing feel is definitely there. Her
Feel is legit.
Great. Yeah.
She's Still been running what she
Wants.
I had no idea that was the Case. I knew why I waited.
Ooh, Knew why
I'm been blue. It
helps have the swing and rhythm section.
Exactly. I've been waiting each day
for someone exactly like
you. Why? Oh,
Ask Peter.
Spend some money On
The show. Up to,
that's
A little Sarah thing going up there.
Everybody sing songs
exactly like you are.
You made me feel,
you make me.
That's kind of Duke Elling today.
There's some count basing in Duke ing Yeah. As
Well. For sure.
Now I
know why she taught
me to be true.
She knew just around the corner was
somebody like you.
It's a gutsy move to go into double
time. Right at right at
The top. So clean with
it though. She's so clean with,
It's Doing a lot of AFL catatonic.
And then
Black Chords
Make me feel so grand.
I want to give this word to you.
Those black chords were swinging. Yeah.
Be you make me understand
the he foolish dreams.
I'm dreaming out now.
I know where
And locked in.
Damn. And like her coing,
it almost seems like she's constantly playing,
but every time she comes in, she's like right in there.
She knew just around the corner.
Hopefully she's dialed there, but she's floating too.
Exactly. Like You,
They didn't know what was gonna happen hanging
Down the E flat.
That's, that's some on the gig arranging
right there. Pretty
That run the end too.
Yeah. You know, the, I love, I actually love this album
because is that swinging like a gate?
Oh my God. Like a well oiled WD 40. I, I'm gonna say it.
I think this is definitely her most like swinging
album that she has.
Right. Where like, later she's gonna get into a lot more
orchestration and arrangements
and even like on the poppier side of things and
or the pop jazz, whatever you wanna call it,
mid-century pop side of things.
Yeah. But this is like a trio.
It's swinging, you know, the solo, I hear,
like you said Duke Ellington.
I hear Count Bassy. Yeah, I hear a little
Oscar Peterson. Like the
Little melodies in between the vocal.
Yeah. I hear some Errol Garner.
I don't hear a lot of Bud Powell or a lot of bird.
Like, I don't hear a lot of bebop inter playing.
There's a lot of pentatonic. Like you said,
there's way more blues than there's bebop for sure.
There's pentatonics, there's
blues, there's the block chords.
There's pure Melody. Maybe a little
Pentecostal too. We don't
know. Maybe a little Pentatonic Pentecostal.
But I don't hear, I don't hear that.
Like sort of, um, Wint and Kelly version of this too.
Right, right. Where there's like some bebop lines happening
underneath that, which is cool.
Like it's, it's actually really works.
Again, very unique voice on the piano as an improviser.
As well as as a vocalist. Right,
Right. This
is interesting. I'm just seeing in our notes here
that we, she was just saying jazz was just part of
what she was, but she identified more as a folk singer.
That's awesome. Which is an interesting thing.
Duke Elling talked about that, you know, being, you know,
folk music around the world being the kind
of a unifying thing as opposed to a stylistic box, you know.
Um, okay.
So, uh, let's see. What are we going on to now?
Oh, number three, the other woman.
So this one, this is the first,
there was three tracks on here that they went back
and recorded in the studio the next month.
This, this record was,
this concert was on September 12th, 1959.
And then it came out in December. Why can't
we have records come out that quick? And came out
December, 1959. 19. So
pretty much 1960? Well, no,
it was Giant Steps came out in 1959.
This came out in 1960. No, well, no,
No. It was close. But this one
actually did come out in 1959.
Just trying to rehash that all over. I
like it when you lean into your errors.
That's, that's one way to do it.
Um, but they went back in and recorded,
and I couldn't get the story in my research, uh,
exactly why, but I, it feels like there was, can
I take a guess why they went and rerecorded stuff?
They, because they, they just met
as the rhythm they just met as the curtain
Was rising, I think was, yeah. But then there
was some allusions
to That's maybe a different rhythm section on here.
We're gonna listen, but I, I couldn't actually hear a,
it's a different recording.
It's in the studio. There's three of these tracks that were,
were redone, which is not uncommon on live records at part.
Yeah. But this is the other one. We're not gonna listen.
I want to get through actually every track, which is unusual
for, so we're gonna around a
there.
I heard some of that, Sarah. I don't know.
It's definitely there. It's definitely there. Oh, this
Was recorded by Sarah or
The other woman, ENC.
This, this is a beautiful ballet here.
But I was saying, I hear a little bit of that.
We're just gonna listen to Sarah again.
Build That vibrato
To the stars.
You know, the, The
Nuance usage Of it to the stars.
That's a little bit, I don't know,
maybe they just both got to that same part with love.
And then also like, that's,
that's the influence on Nina Simone.
The influence coming off, this is Betty Carter in 1960.
So a year later, very young
Betty Carter, teenage, I believe.
Stormy. So Betty's
voice higher, and this was kind of
before she was Betty Bebop became her nickname.
And definitely more, not timid.
Her voice is amazing, but like, you can tell the influences.
So I think, well, I know,
'cause I remember she used to talk about Nina
Simone was definitely an influence.
Yeah. Uh, on her, uh, being a little bit younger.
By the way, I love the genre of the song The Other Woman,
which is like, it's a list song, right?
Yeah. Like she's listing things.
It's a list, but it's a comparative mind list song.
Like you're comparing yourself.
It's a little bit like, uh, in the tradition, uh,
that Jolene Jolly Parton's Jolene would be in.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Um, it's a little bit like, uh,
there's a, oh, what's the Sinatra one?
That's a very similar vibe.
Anyway, I love that genre of, first of all,
I love list song genres.
Yeah. If I Were A Bell is a great list song. Yeah.
There's so many. Yeah. But then like,
the psychological reversed comparing. Anyway. Right.
Mama said Knock You Out by LL Cool J That's a list song.
I'm gonna knock you out. And then you go
through all the reasons why he's gonna knock you out.
Anyway, different show. What
Are you musicologist? Amazing.
Here's Under the Low Amazing Commentary. This
Is one of the only, um,
I think there's two instrumentals on
here. This is the Blues. That's
Why your award winning peak.
We hope Original by,
um, Nina Simone.
And this would've been an easy one.
Woo. An easy one to rehearse. To not rehearse.
Well, that means he just called the blue. Exactly.
What key
A Yeah.
Unusual
Key.
This is kind of a classical of musicians.
Blues key, wouldn't you say a
Oh, You don't get a lot
of blues called an A. At least on our
Game. Yeah. Horn play's
not gonna call this. No.
I mean, a guitarist would. Yeah. Down in Sard.
That's Duke Elliot right there. Influencer.
Ooh. I think this is her best playing
Man. Her, her blues
playing is so,
Come on, Ben Riley.
What's up with Ben Reilly's bass drum man. Oh, his
Ba He, he drops the bomb.
Like, it's nothing. Why can't
We get that from more drummers?
I know nowadays. That's great. Feels so good.
And I feel like Nina Simone, her blues playing is so great
because she's not encumbered.
The reason I'm saying Duke Ellington is not to be reductive
and be like, oh, that's just Duke Ellington.
No, I mean, and maybe it's almost like they're not
encumbered by that bebop pull, you know what I mean?
It's like straight like dia onic blues, like very,
very melodic.
It's not using any harmonic tricks outside
of what's built into the blues.
Right.
Yeah. Woo.
It's like she said it too.
It's storytelling. You know what I mean? She
Says that a lot on this album. Do
you notice? Yeah.
Man, she went in this bad boy confident.
I'm telling you, her confidence
is what makes her so appealing. Which
Is crazy because she's 24, 25 years old.
Yeah. And, um, she's headlining.
Guess who opened up for her at this concert?
Uh, you want me to legitimately guess? No.
Okay. Horace Silver, Bill Haley
And, um, uh, JJ Johnson both, but with their
Bands, Horace Silver and JJ Johnson's bands opened.
Yeah. She was the headliner
of this, her first time with town. I wonder
How they felt about that.
Well, I mean, you know, they've
Been around for A minute time.
Yeah. So, I mean, but she came in. Wow. Just killing it.
Okay. So that was the Blues original under the lowest. Oh.
So this is Irving Berlin's. You can have him.
This is fun here
To being a harp here.
Yeah. Tell him what to do.
She just called him in on this. Yeah, yeah. You're right.
I don't want him. You can have him.
He's not worth fighting for.
Ooh, that's a Betty card. You definitely got that from,
Besides there's Pliny more where he came from.
We gotta talk about Shirley Hors the influence
of Neon and Shirley too. Yeah,
Yeah. Yeah. I don't want
him. You, you can have him.
I'm giving him the S sock
and he can
go right back.
It's like a boy. She's got the Broadway thing too.
He is a Broadway song. This is from
I'm Afraid I Miss Liberty.
Try it. Loved him
Sweetie. He'd
be better off with you.
This is the verse, right? Yeah.
I Could never make him
Wilber wears, like figuring it out. Wil.
See, I know the verse on this.
Run my fingers through his curly lives.
Curly Bend, his underwear
Rhythmic than anything.
And his socks.
Yeah. It's just, it's like so much.
Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, um, real quick.
So what we were talking about
before about like, the sophistication
of her using triads is something you don't hear a lot
of jazz p do when they accompany.
Yeah. Which is like when she hit that, like when they walk
that down, when the Key V here,
most jazz pianists on this one
would play maybe something like this
at the least, right. By like an E
Six nine, kind of Six nine thing.
Yeah. Right. But she straight up went like,
Da da Like a knee major triad.
Yeah. Right. Which I, if you're like a, a rock
or pop musician, you're like, uh, yeah.
That's called a chord buddy. It's called a chord.
But we are are kind of, we're
Fancy. We are
Fancy and we like these things. We're
Sophisticated. We're sophisticated,
but it really works for her man.
Yeah. And like, that's
what I'm saying with just like, her being
Her, because it's like the, like that adds a lot of color
and nuance to the sort
of ver vertical thing that's happening.
Well, but like her voice is able to add
that when she just does that also,
Man, it's a dang tonic cord.
Like it's one, it's what going
to the e going, you know what I mean?
No's It's really, really powerful. And
That's the thing she's got, I was just saying like,
she's like a broad, she has the drama
and understanding of the lyric and melody.
Like a Broadway singer. Yeah.
But then she brings like the jazz flair
and the blues inflection.
It's, it's, and but she considered herself a folk
Singer. So this is, by the
way, I did not know this fact that
Wilbur Ware and Ben Riley were introduced to Nina
as the curtain was rising.
And I'm hearing everything now. Totally different.
Like Yeah. Her calling them in. Yeah.
Now I'm like, oh, she's just
arranging on the spot essentially. Stick
With me buddy. You'll learn some things.
Okay. Oh my gosh.
But I've learned so much already.
Summertime track number six. Never
Heard of it.
Ooh. Little foreshadowing there.
Coming along. Coming along.
Ooh. So good. Wilbur
Heard the way they played that
line. Can I, can I take that back?
Back it up. Sorry.
And the fact they didn't know what was gonna happen.
Ooh, We win.
She's playing really quiet now.
'cause remember how soft the drums were before in the mix.
What A beautiful sound she gets too. Yeah.
It's just such a great piano sound,
Blooper Wear.
Ooh. They're literally arranging it on the spot.
Collective arrangement.
And this would've been a song that they all knew. Yeah.
That every juxtaposition is
So the way This, and most
classical musicians know real.
Right. So the way this was on the original record was
split up into like, instrumental, but it's,
and then vocal version.
Sorry, I fast forward a little bit.
Great call.
That's
Such a great, yeah.
She's singing the counter melody
and playing the real melody on top
And All As
Are you changing your zone? Change
my, my apex. These are,
It's Like two zones.
Yes. I mean, all this stuff is great.
I'm, I'm, yeah, I'm going.
We, we will talk about the apex
and maybe even come back to it again because Cool.
But that's such a, like,
that would probably be the subtlest
apex moment I've ever done.
But it's so genius.
Well, what she does there,
and like, when you listen to this whole track,
and I encourage you guys don't just take
what we're doing for copyright reasons.
We can't play the whole track. Right.
But the thing is, it's, it's such a, um, it's such a,
like this is exactly what great art is.
Like, it's so beautiful and simple
and you guys will probably hear that
and you're like, why are you guys overexplaining it?
That's just for fun. But like the sophistication, it's,
it's just like one little way of, it's like taking salt
and chocolate, whoever figured that out at first.
Genius. 'cause it works. It shouldn't work, but it does.
I eat it every night. I can tell you,
You know, that's an American thing.
Is that an American thing? Oh, you give some sweet and
and salty to a European, they don't
Want that. Yeah. They're gonna kick
You outta their country. But this
Is like that way of playing the me up there.
It's so simple and but sophisticated at the same time.
I love it. So yeah. What she's doing here in the key
of D is, you know, normally you would sing
what the melody is, which would be like summertime
And A living is easy.
What she sings is just the tonic. Right? Yeah.
And summertime. And she holds it. Oh,
While she plays the melody up high. Yeah.
It's such a great orchestration technique. It is.
Is what she's doing. And it's like, and
Then Ben Riley and Wil were ware are like adding their
parts to their, they're coming up with this, this, uh,
spontaneous arrangement that just sounds right.
And they'd be like, after you do that,
you'd be like, oh, we, we should never
Rehearse. You know what? I think we don't
need to rehearse
Peter. And there's,
there's like the, that degree
of like unexpected that you don't get if you over rehearse.
It's nice. I think this, I think this young woman has a
future in the, she has a future.
She's got a future in this business. Well, you know
What, let's, this will be a good time for
us to jump forward a little bit.
Speaking of a future, here's, but six years later,
Flying high,
1965 In the sky, you know how I feel.
Breathe drifting on by, you know how feel
it's a new dawn.
It is a new day. It's a new
life for me.
Yeah. It's a new dawn. It's a new day.
It's a new life for me.
And I'm feeling good.
Damn. Such a great, such a,
such a great story.
Ridiculously so I feel so, you know,
there was a whole evolution there and,
and you might say, okay, this is more indicative.
The voice is the same,
but there's like another, like, it's so recognizable,
but there's like an even more enhanced sort
of maturity the way to this very simplistic kind
of like pentatonic based melody.
And then, and then of course it goes
So many qualities too that we hear in like a lot
of well-known modern artists.
Like whether that's like, you can hear it in Amy Winehouse.
Yeah. You can even, I was just hearing like
a little Tracy Chapman.
Yep. You know, from that.
Absolutely. Absolutely. Little Fiona
Apple. Ooh. Like a lot of people.
Yeah. Nina influenced. Yeah, for
Sure. Alright, here's track
seven.
We got 10 tracks to get through Cotton igel.
This is an old 19th century American folk song.
Do you come from
and where do you go?
Do you come from,
You crying?
No, I got some, uh, I got some moisturizer. Nice.
They Should play this version at sporting events
instead of the nineties dance version.
That's like you think. And I'm on a Cotton
Been, Yeah. This
Has been Country fight, hasn't it?
I would love to hear this. The Cardinals game, honestly.
There you go. Um,
now we're gonna move actually Track eight.
For some reason I don't have, what was Track eight?
Oh, we turn home. I've got the LP here.
We don't have that, but that's okay.
'cause we're running outta time.
Anyway, we're gonna start to kind of, we're going
to get towards the end of here,
but I wanna jump into a few categories
because this one I believe you have as this is, uh,
wild As the Wind.
Yes. This is my Desert Island
Track. This is your desert Island
track.
Yeah. Okay. So we're gonna check this out.
It's a beautiful song. It is.
Love Me. Love Me.
This Is another one that was in the
studio, not for the live version.
This is written by Dmitri Temkin
and Ned Washington for the 1957 film Island is The Wind.
Yeah.
So good.
Give me more Than
One.
I just really, I love, I love the song itself.
I love the lyrics, but I also love that it really leans on,
you know, like the ninth of the chord.
Yeah. A lot. It leans on some really odd notes.
And to hear again, this amazing voice
that she has this unique, uh, soul that comes
through in her singing for her to lay on those notes
that aren't, um, folk song notes.
Right, right. That is more of,
I I would say like a jazz musician. Kind of like melody,
Right? Yeah. Melodic
movement through the Ballad.
More jazz. It sounds like Mount Davis. Exactly. Right.
You know, and I love her in that zone. Yeah.
And it was, it was originally sung by Johnny Mathis.
So, so, you know, I don't know exactly
where the influences for this.
This is Shirley Horn's original
recording, but she definitely love
Me Of the same song.
Love me. So two years later,
Say you do
Similar Vibes.
Yeah.
Lemme fly Away with You
Beautiful song.
And then this is Shirley Horn.
Here's to Life Jumping ahead to the early nineties.
We've covered this one.
Love me. Love me. Save. You do.
Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
Oh, that one. Got that, that one always gets it.
I have, he loves this record. Man. I've got
A moisturizer in my eye, man.
You know, you don't, you, you, you hadn't looked like
you'd had a dry eye before.
You didn't need to put moisturizer in. You're all good.
Um, cool.
Alright, we got one more track,
but let's get to some, uh, actually no, let's listen
to a little bit of this because this is not officially
'cause I switched my Apex moment.
Okay. But this is a great, this is fine. And Melon fine.
And Meow the, the classic Billy Holiday.
My manny don't love me,
he teach me. Oh, show me.
So Nina Moon had definitely hurt Billy Hol.
I mean, you can tell from this. Yeah.
Famously there's that video, right?
Yes. Billy Holiday
singing this. I forget what the name of that.
Ben Webster. Yeah, Jerry Mulligan. That's
Right.
That was like early fifties I
Think. I think so. Yeah.
I've ever seen, Man, she wrote this in 1939.
Really? Holiday. Yeah.
My baby wears high peg pants
And like beat Simon Old's choice of when not to comp
or to play on the piano is really cool and important
Baby with hot pig pants.
Yeah. Stripes are really yellow.
Stripes are really yellow.
When he starts in to love me, he's so fried and mellow.
Can I get you a wet nap or something for
Your eye? S SPF 30
in my eye, man.
Love will make you drink and gamble. Make it stay
Back. Is it a break or not a break?
It doesn't
matter. Ben Riley's gonna keep going.
That's right. He just played right
through it. He didn't know
Love will make you drink again if you,
I mean, you guys, you meant to do it.
Yeah, that's right. That's so awesome, man.
Like I said, I gotta, now I gotta go listen to this
and like hear all these things that are happening.
Amazing.
Yeah. But what a cool thing to have something that was
that spontaneous to be preserved for.
It's beautiful feels Preserved.
It's not just like, oh, that's a fun thing,
but it's like, no, this is a great record to listen
To. You know? I mean, buddy, how
many live shows have you been
with at where like people are just meeting each other
for the first time and it's a great
vibe. You're getting to know each other.
I've been at 'em, but that's like
one outta 10, to be honest.
When they're good. Yeah.
I mean it's like, it feels good,
but if you were to listen back
to a lot of those, you'd be like, ugh.
It wouldn't be as consistent as this. I would say.
That's okay. That's unusual.
I'll give you that. But occasionally, yeah,
you do get some really good energy.
Of course, for sure. Because everybody's like,
what's gonna happen for like, when the musicians kind
of don't know, there's like this excitement
and danger in the air is great.
Yeah. And you guys might not realize when you hear this
because it's such great performing,
but there is an, I mean,
Nina's probably the most confident on there in a way,
but Wilbur Ware, I mean, because she's leading the thing.
Yeah. But they are like,
you wouldn't know that they never played
Together. Well, let's be honest here. Wilbur
Ware
and Ben Riley are, they're good.
They're pros. I guess they're pros.
Like it's, this isn't their first time
that they've accompanied someone
without a rehearsal. Are you
Saying it's not their first rodeo? Definitely.
You're about to say it. Definitely
Not. I'll say it. These are two masters.
So yeah, we're
Getting to some categories here.
Let's do it. Desert Island tracks.
You already said yours is wild as the wind. That's great.
I mean, that one would be correct.
I said exactly like you just,
because it's probably in, in a way, the most sort
of stylistically atypical on this.
But like, I don't know, needless is swinging so hard.
Wilbur and band of course is. I mean, I don't know.
It's just such a fun thing.
I love that song and I think it's so, it's, it's probably,
I I can just listen to that every day on my desert on We'll
Allow it. We'll allow it.
Okay. Uh, apex moment.
So I have this portion
of the under the lowest solo, right?
Yeah. Which is that blues. Yeah.
Uh, starting at about a minute 30 Peter, if you don't mind.
Here we go. She gets into this repeated note,
Huh? Yeah. Yeah. It sounds very
modern.
Yeah.
Like, Is that Brad Mill now?
Right. And shout out to Ben Riley
for not going
crazy. Yeah,
Yeah, yeah. And then the,
yeah, at the end it's all just like,
that's such a great, that's a great
cherry on top. That's my favorite part.
I think the, the, the mini apex moments on
here are so understated.
That's, that's the fun part about it, you know? Um, yeah.
And so the summertime when as we explained the two zones
for me, that is the, uh, well,
when she's playing the melody and top singing,
Singing the tonic, The
Counter melody, and then eventually she sings like the
fifth when it goes to the five chord. Yeah.
But she's still like, storytelling
with, with, with both of them.
It's like she's telling two different stories.
It's f*****g amazing. You know, it's really fun.
Uh, bespoke playlist. What you got?
Uh, I, wait, you Know what?
We have a lot of new
listeners and viewers. Did you know that?
Did you just ask me a question and interrupt me? Yes,
I did. Okay. I,
I, I, no, I just want you to,
can you let people know what we're talking about?
We assume everyone knows what we mean by bespoke
Playlist. Okay. That's actually a great call.
So, bespoke playlist is,
Did you just question me and then come
back and dap me up right after that? No.
Okay. Bespoke playlist is, uh, imagine a playlist
that was created by a Spotify Apple Music YouTube user,
where they put their favorite things into a playlist
and they give it a stupid name, which people love to do.
And so we thought, well, we can do this with this album.
If this album were to appear in one
of those bespoke playlists,
what would be the stupid name we would give it? I'm
Glad I had you explain it. I never knew there
was a stu stupid angle to it.
I mean, everything we do has a little bit
of a stupid angle to it appear.
But I have, for this one, I have from Conservatory
to the club and you got it.
Not my best work, but it works.
You've got it. The both Cs are capitalized. I like that.
I've got it. I'm calling this quartet of three. Okay.
What that which is both stupid and crafty at the same time.
Well, because it's a
Trio quartet of three,
But there's four instruments playing.
It sounds like a, I Confused him. Look at him.
He's doing the math now.
He's like, it sounds like a Max Jazz album.
Corte a Max Jazz album.
A Max Jazz album. Quibble Bits.
Should we explain quibble bits
Too? Yes. Should we explain
The Show? Are we overexplaining it?
Uh, Quibble. I think that one's self-explanatory.
You got any quibble bits? Um, just, you know,
I think there's a little bit of inconsistency
as you would have for the sound and the vibe,
and possibly even on the rhythm section.
We don't know between the, the three studio redos.
Um, although you can tell they mixed it in a way to try
to make it sound like you almost wouldn't know. Did
They add tape, tape p**s to the studio?
They, I mean, there's a lot of reverb.
Probably more than, yeah, there's a town hall reverb
That was probably, Sam, can you add
some tape p**s to the show please?
You know, so to me that gives it a little bit
of an inconsistent vibe.
And the order seems like it is not,
it doesn't feel like this is the way
it was presented, which is fine.
You can change, but I love live albums when it's
like from beginning to end.
I, there's, I have no quibble bits with any of the tracks.
I think they're all,
and it's probably put together in, in the best way.
But this is not, the sequencing
and the vibe inconsistency is a little bit off
For me. Yeah. Mine
is very similar.
The the sound is noisy. That tape p**s is,
Well just come out and say it. The
sound is noisy. Got it. Sound
Is noisy. And I would, there's
Some p**s. You
Know. A and that's
a very,
it's actually a pretty small quibble bit
because a live albums,
especially if it's a fifties live album,
I'm not expecting it to sound
like kind of blue. You know what I mean?
60 59. We don't know. It Was, we don't know.
S anter. Now this, we really have to, because I look
To your, we should not even Talk about No, no, no.
We have to explain it because on, don't know. We don't
To, we can't explain it.
There's no explanation for the snow. Well, but
You've, you're really getting aggressive here with your
Sno Sno bombers from one to 10,
formerly the SnoBall meter. But you,
I'm tired of these weak ass fives, Peter.
That's true. But,
but explain why you're giving it a one. Because I see that big
Fat, I'm giving it a one because I think it's very,
very not snobby.
I think it's very, very available to your average listener
who doesn't know anything about jazz.
Yeah. But this is, okay. That doesn't make any sense.
Why, because this is probably like, if you were to say,
what's your favorite, if I were
to ask you what's your favorite Nina Simone record
and you said Sim Nina Simone at Town Hall, you'd be like,
you would be the Snubbies Jazziest
guy wearing a blue blazer.
Okay. That's, that's a But you've, you've reduced it down
to the category of Nina Simone, if I, if you were to say,
what's your favorite, uh, jazz album?
And I said, Nina Simone Live at Town Hall, you'd be like,
that's pretty commercial, don't you think? You
Know what I mean? I don't know.
Well, maybe you're right.
So I that, that's why I put two or nine.
'cause I wasn't sure which one of
those. Look at that. I've got it there.
Maybe we should explain the category to you, Peter.
No, it's a two or nine,
depending on which way we look at it.
Let's move on. Uh, average of five.
Is it better than kind of blue? Nope. Nope. Uh, acc malts.
Okay. I'm gonna get mine first, if that's okay. Go ahead.
Uh, because I'm, I'm very surprised by yours.
I'm going with a seven.
And that's really low for me in a way,
because like, I'm not crazy about the picture
of Nina Simone,
although it's like compositionally, it's interesting.
You've got these mics here.
It's out of focus, but it's just not a great
picture, I don't think.
I mean, you, you can go look at it, but I love this design.
Like, I love the combination.
Uh, you know, it, it is really interesting. The, so you
See this design, you mean the Nina that's at the top?
Multi topography, multicolored block typography.
It reminds me of Zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom, zoom,
zoom on PBS in the seventies. Oh,
Yeah, I know what you're talking about. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
I gave it a two.
And the only reason it gets a two and not a one is
because of the block, Nina. Yeah. Because the,
That's what got a seven. The
photo is out of focus and it's not a
great composition of a photo. No, I said
That. They
Don't even mention who's playing bass
and drums on the album notes.
I that, I hate that Hate. It's ridiculous. Yeah.
I mean, there's a little bit, like, there's a couple
paragraphs of a blurb from, uh,
Don Ross. They got both Howard
Burke. Yeah. They got the
producer's name on there. Not the
Musicians, but not the rhythm section.
Yeah. Yeah. It's also, if you look at this too,
it's like this is crooked.
This like, the notes are crooked on that. Okay. That
Might be the, uh, bootleg reprint. Well, we
Can't name that. I'm just saying
like, I don't think it's great. P****d.
Future months. You're p****d. I'm not
p****d. Think they could do better.
Oh, you said because of this. She's
such a striking looking person. I
Know. Put
A picture of her, an amazing looking face on the
cover of the album, you know what I mean? I know, I know.
And if you're gonna have a picture from the concert,
capture the trio.
Yeah. Playing together for the first time.
Thats a cool thing, man. Yeah. Okay.
Um, what do you have up next?
So up next is like something that would pair with this.
It doesn't have to be the same artist.
It doesn't even have to be the same time.
It'd be like, you listen to this
and then you listen to another record
and it would be some sort of congeniality between them.
Yeah. I have Roberta Flack killing me softly. Ooh.
And I'll tell you why. Great call. Great call.
We've done a whole episode on Roberta Flack
and they have such a similar story.
Like, I don't know if you remember Yes.
But Roberta Flack grew up playing classical music. Yes.
She went to Howard University and studied Chopin. Yeah.
You know, a lot, lot like how Nina Simone wanted to play Box
and Chopin and she eventually started playing at
a club in the DC area.
Yeah. And people discovered her for this sort
of like folk singer songwriter.
Right. And this is going on
after Nina Simone had already had a very successful career.
So I think those two women, um, making very different music,
but from a very similar, at
First take kind of a jazz, kind
of her jazz record too, but
Not really a jazz. And I don't think, maybe even
Less than this, Less than that.
I don't think Roberta Flack would consider
herself a jazz musician at all.
Right. But I do think that, um,
there's a lot of similarities there.
And also I think they would sound nice next to each other.
Absolutely. That's great. I've
got Sarah Vaughn live and Mr.
Kellys, we listen to some of that.
That's the, like, that's a incredible record.
Yeah, that's a great call. It's from two years before this.
It'll, it, it's, you know, two sides of a,
of coin that are very different.
Uh, but I think super complimentary. So,
Hey Peter. Yeah. I just wanna
remind our dear listeners here
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