Tag Archives: Nina Simone

Cultural Heritage Preservation

Nina Simone at 1966 Newport Jazz Festival

The 2023 festival is history but if I could go back in time, it would be to the 1966 Newport Jazz Festival. The lineup included Count Basie, Dave Brubeck, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Jimmy Rushing, Esther Phillips and Joe Williams. Verve Records has issued a newly discovered recording of Nina Simone’s set on July 2, 1966, packaged as the album, “You’ve Got to Learn.”

From All About Jazz:

The release of this magnificent album, recorded live at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1966, is headline news for fans of Nina Simone. None of the material, all of it high grade, has been made available before. Newport promoter George Wein donated the tapes of Simone’s performance to the US Library of Congress, where they lay forgotten until, following Wein’s passing in 2021, Simone historian Nadine Cohodas unearthed them. Simone is in peak form, accompanied by guitarist Rudy Stevenson, bassist Lisle Atkinson and drummer Bobby Hamilton, and audio quality is very good. The album is killer.

The tracklist includes “You’ve Got to Learn,” “I Loves You, Porgy,” “Blues For Mama,” “Be My Husband” and “Mississippi Goddam.”

To order or listen to “You’ve Got to Learn,” go here.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage Preservation

Jazz Appreciation Month 2021

The National Museum of American History designated April as Jazz Appreciation Month in 2001.

As made clear in his remarks before the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. understood the power of jazz to bring about social change.

Sadly, Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of the Hotel Lorraine in Memphis, Tennessee. I want to kick off Jazz Appreciation Month by remembering the Prince of Peace in song.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage

Jazz at Home Club

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Jazz at Home Club was organized in 1961 by Chet Carmichael, education director of radio station WDAS (pictured at 1963 March on Washington).

Chet Carmichael - WDAS - 1963 March on Washington

The club was launched during Philadelphia’s golden age of jazz. It was designed for casual jazz fans who were turned off by the perception that jazz clubs were for jazz aficionados. The membership dues were one dollar per year. At their Jazz Listening Session, members listened to newly released albums.

As the club grew in popularity, luminaries from the jazz world were invited to speak at the monthly meeting including Billy Taylor, Gloria Lynne, John Hammond, Art Blakey and Rufus Harley Jr., aka the “Pied Piper of Jazz,” the world’s first jazz bagpiper.

Jazz At Home USA - Rufus Harley - Insert

Jazz at Home bestowed the “Jazz Musician of the Year” Award on musicians who advanced the jazz culture – Jimmy Smith (1962), Clark Terry (1963), Duke Ellington (1964), Nina Simone (1966) and Horace Silver (1967).

Jazzz at Home Club - Nina Simone

Jazzz at Home Club - Horace Silver - October 22, 1967

Rev. John Garcia Gensel, creator of the Jazz Vespers at Saint Peter’s Church, spoke at a monthly meeting of Jazz at Home.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage Preservation

Virtual Preservation Month 2020

May is Preservation Month, a time to celebrate places that matter to you. Since 2013, I have led walking tours of African American historic sites in Philadelphia. Amid the coronavirus lockdown, the National Trust for Historic Preservation is making a virtue of necessity:

Even though many historic places are physically closed right now, we at the National Trust for Historic Preservation are opening a window to a world of adventure online with Virtual Preservation Month.

Throughout the month of May, the National Trust is bringing you the very best in preservation from coast to coast, offering 31 days of rich digital experiences at historic places to inspire, delight, and entertain you. Whether coming from our National Trust Historic Sites, Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios, or National Treasures, each day will unlock a new experience and help you step out while you stay in. You’ll wander the rooms of iconic houses, roam wide-open spaces, and peek behind the scenes at some of your favorite historic sites—all at your own pace.

The National Trust spearheads the campaign to restore Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina. In August 2019, the National Trust and Come Hear North Carolina organized a concert at the three-room house featuring Vanessa Ferguson, a finalist in season 12 of NBC’s The Voice.

To receive daily email or text reminder of the National Trust’s virtual experience, go here.

400 Years of African American History, Advocacy, Historic Preservation

Help Restore Nina Simone’s Childhood Home

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From its birth, jazz has been at the intersection of race and social change. Nina Simone, the “High Priestess of Soul,” left a musical legacy that speaks to the current times. Indeed, the debate over segregationists, school busing and states’ rights harkens back to the days of “Old Jim Crow.”

The National Trust for Historic Preservation recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to restore Nina Simone’s childhood home in Tryon, North Carolina.

Your donation in any amount will help preserve Nina Simone’s story in public memory. For more information, please go here.

Advocacy, Cultural Heritage

Vote for Nina Simone for Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

The High Priestess of Soul has been nominated for induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame:

Nina Simone’s unapologetic rage and accusatory voice named names and took no prisoners in the African-American struggle for equality in the early 1960s.

Her triumphant voice sang what it meant to be young, gifted and black in a sometimes unjust and troubled world.

Nina Simone is one of 19 nominees in the Class of 2018.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

Information on the induction process is available here. Fans can vote for up to five nominees once a day. Voting is open through 11:59 p.m. on December 5.

As of this writing, Ms. Simone is trailing behind in fan votes.

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Current Standing

An unvarnished truth-teller, Nina Simone worked her magic “for the whole round world to hear.” Let’s show her the love that’s in our hearts. Vote early and often.

Cultural Heritage, Jazz Venues

Queen Mary Room

The Queen Mary Room was located in the Rittenhouse Hotel.

Rittenhouse Hotel - Philly Records

In the spring of 1957, agent Jerry Field signed Nina Simone to perform here for $100 a week, later increased to $175. Circa December 1957, the legend-in-the-making recorded her debut album with Bethlehem Records, “Little Girl Blue.” The album tracks include “My Baby Just Cares for Me.”

Jazz Venues

Pep’s Musical Bar

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Pep Restaurant opened in the 1930s. Pep’s Musical Bar opened in 1951 under the ownership of William “Bill” Gerson. Jack Goldenberg purchased Pep’s in 1957.

Pep’s was one of Philadelphia’s most celebrated jazz clubs. Goldenberg brought in national jazz, blues, R&B and soul greats, including Jimmy Rushing, Quincy Jones, Dinah Washington and Yusef Lateef.

Pep's Collage
Pep's - Yuseef Lateef

Philly favorite John Coltrane frequently performed at Pep’s, including on September 18, 1964.

G. Bruce Boyer, a journalist and former editor for Town & Country, shared the night he saw Nina Simone at the club:

I remember seeing the great pianist-chanteuse Nina Simone at Pep’s Showbar at the corner of Broad and South Streets in South Philly in the early 60s. At that point the club had already been one of the great East Coast haunts for jazz performers and aficionados for two decades or more. Nat King Cole had played there, and so had Count Basie and Duke Ellington, Lester Young and Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Nancy Wilson, Thelonious Monk, and Jimmy Smith. Going to Pep’s was a jazz pilgrimage.

[…]

She was an incomparable artist and played much of that wonderful mix of music at her Pep’s engagement. Starting off with an extended version of the great blues “Trouble in Mind”, followed by a stirring, elegiac jazz/classical version of “You’d be so Nice to Come Home to.” Then some Ellington and more blues. The audience knew it would all lead up to “Porgy” for a grand finale.

About a half hour or so into the show she had gently just begun to swing into “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, when she suddenly stopped playing. Just stopped, her high-coiffed head bent over the keys and the sidemen trailing off. The place got quieter and quieter ’til you couldn’t even hear an ice cube clink in a glass; there was complete silence … except for two thugs at a table in the corner who had been talking. Another 30 seconds in that vacuum and they looked up too, and found Miss Simone glaring straight at them.

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Advocacy

The Mark of Jazz

From the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia:

From 1965 to 1975, Broadcast Pioneers member Sid Mark hosted a widely acclaimed television show, first carried by Philadelphia’s Channel 17, WPHL-TV and then later aired by WHYY-TV, Channel 12. “The Mark of Jazz” was THE broadcast of that era for jazz.

In an interview with All About Jazz, Sid Mark talked about Nina Simone:

SM: And one of the people I was actually responsible for when it came to her success was Nina Simone.

AAJ: I know that Nina spent some time in Philadelphia.

SM: She started her career in Philadelphia. In her autobiography, she said the reason for her success was a white Jewish disc jockey, Sid Mark. She said, “If I knew him today, I don’t know if I’d kiss him or smack him in the mouth!” (laughter.) That’s a quote. We had a hell of a relationship! By the way, did the tribute concert by her daughter ever take place?

AAJ: It was performed at Town Hall last year. From what I understand, it was extremely successful.

SM: I love that picture of the two of them together.

AAJ: She’s been very active in promoting Nina’s legacy.

SM: Nina was something else. We had hours of discussions on the numerous radio and TV shows we did together. When I discovered her, she was just playing piano at a little joint in Philly at 22nd and Chestnut. It was a bar, and she wasn’t singing, just playing the piano.

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