NINA SIMONE: WHO KNEW?

November 7th was full-on, part one....

It’s Sunday, November 23rd so, dear Substack reader, you just might be wondering why I would be writing the firsr of a couple of posts about Friday, November 7th! Truth is, I intended to share about what a momentous day it was a few days later and then - paraphrasing the brilliant (and often under-appreciated) lyricist Hal David, “weeks turn into years” (from ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose’ - and in my case, ‘days turned into weeks’!

Referencing that Dionne Warwick classic is a reminder that I will - at some point - write about my many years in L.A. and how I saw first hand how 'all the stars that never were are parking cars and pumping gas’ (or more often, served as waiters in restaurants). Broken dreams, indeed…

Back to November 7th, a day for three personally monumental events.

Nina Simone has been omnipresent in my life since I read an interview with Dionne Warwick in 1964 referencing Nina as one of her favourite artists of the day; a little while later, I heard the song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” whose lyrics are indelibly etched on my psyche: ‘I’m just a soul whose intentions are good….’

Little did I know then just how omnipresent and omniscient Nina would be. By the spring of 1965, at the age of 17, I had formed the first appreciation society for Nina in the UK and we then met on a Saturday morning in June on her first visit to Europe.

I had no conscious way of ‘knowing’ at that time what an incredible role she would play in my life, the impact she would have in impressing on me the importance of freedom at all costs, of how in so many ways, she helped shape my world view….

I have written thousands and thousands words about Nina Simone. There’s a whole chapter on her in my 1999 tome, “The Soulful Divas.” I have been asked to pen liner notes and produce CD reissues of Nina’s music that have given whole new generations of listeners an opportunity to discover more about the unique magnificence of one of the greatest musical artists of our time.

Who knew?

Certainly in 1965, I was thrilled to share Nina’s music with my classmates at Kilburn Grammar School when a very progressive teacher, Mr. Kerry invited me to talk about her in the school library. I played Nina’s stark reading of Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” to illustrate just WHO Nina was as a civil rights activist: after the silence that followed, my fellow pupils burst into applause.

Thanks to today’s social media, one of my classmates, Graeme, contacted me a few months ago to remind me of how hearing Nina and “Strange Fruit” had such a profound impact.

Who knew?

My longtime pal and Grammy-winning producer and renowned archivist/historian Cheryl Pawelski - aware of my ‘connection’ with Nina over years - informed me in July of this year that her label, Omnivore Recordings would be reissuing Nina’s final studio album, “A Single Woman” as a an expanded edition on vinyl and CD.

The most joyful aspect of the project was that it would include all of the outtakes from the 1993 sessions for Elektra Records, including Nina’s potent reading of Prince’s “Sign O’ The Times,” a beautifully-orchestrated version of “The Long And Winding Road” and Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” among other tracks that ‘may’ have been intended for a second Elektra LP which never materialized.

It’s funny that, as I write about it now, I had forgotten (LOL) that the existence of the seven additional recordings was virtually unknown, except to Elektra executive Michael Alago (who signed Nina to the label) until I ‘discovered’ them as part of the vault research I was doing for Rhino Records, the catalogue division of Warner Music Group, back in 2003! I still recall my surprise that anything had been left from the original recording sessions and was thrilled when I heard what hadn’t been included on the 10-track LP released in ‘93.

As I recall, I had suggested an expanded edition release to the US Rhino folks after I found the extra tracks in 2003 but nothing seemed to materialize - except in the UK and Europe, when to my dismay, the exact sequence I had come up with for the bonus tracks was used in 2008 and someone else was assigned the liner notes! Oh well.

But then, as I have discovered so many times in life, karma will prevail, something that is for further illumination in the next post I’ll be doing about November 7th!

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I was thrilled when Cheryl P. asked me to work on the Omnivore release with her and her great team. She asked if I knew of any additional outtakes and in checking my reference discs, yes, there were four such tracks! The title of the amazing CD and glorious 2-LP set, “The Complete Elektra Recordings” became truly appropriate and I am honoured that Cheryl listed me as the co-producer for the reissue.

And…I got to write the liner notes! Going back to an in-person interview I conducted with Nina for Blues & Soul in September 1992 at her Hollywood condominium, I referenced her plans for the record which would ultimately be her final studio album. Who knew?

What I didn’t reveal in my notes for “A Single Woman” were circumstances that occurred around the interview! Suffice to say that one does NOT keep a diva waiting and certainly not a High Priestess Of Soul! Read on….

Trying to pack too much travel into any day in L.A. (which was my home for 24 years) can be fraught with challenge, given the distance in traversing highways, byways and freeways! I realized as I left the home of my dear friend Stephanie Jourdan, PH.D., the renowned past life hypnotherapist (who actually wrote the foreword for my new book “Through 7 Lives - A Reincarnational Journey” published on…November 7th!) that I would not make my appointment with Dr. Nina Simone on time.

Now, in 1992, there were, shockingly, no mobile phones. Imagine! Since I don’t drive (and never have, other than a few failed attempts at learning), I got a taxi. I had called Nina’s assistant on her landline to advise that I might be ‘a few minutes late.’ As the taxi literally ‘crawled’ through mid-afternoon traffic in the San Fernando Valley, I made an ‘executive’ decision: I spotted a florist and asked the taxi driver to pull over.

Sensing that Dr. Simone would NOT be happy about my anticipated tardiness, I bought a large bouquet and off I sped to Hollywood, beseeching the taxi driver to find any or all shortcuts.

I finally arrived, 45 minutes late. Buzzed into the condominium by Nina’s personal assistant, with bouquet strategically hidden behind my back, I entered the room as Dr. Nina Simone sat up in her chair and bellowed: “You’re LATE!”

Before we were literally face-to-face for the first time in quite a few years, I had swung round to give her the flowers. All was forgiven. “Thank you, dah-ling!” Nina proffered with all the grandeur befitting her majestical presence!

Who knew?

The full-circle-ness of contributing “A Single Woman: The Complete Elektra Recordings” fills with me with gratitude for the confluence and synchro-destiny of my life (and I would say, all of our lives, for me, there’s no such thing as ‘coincidence’). You’ll hear more about that in the post about “Through 7 Lives” and how Nina and I really do go waaay back. Try, back to other lifetimes…. Stay tuned!

I’m smiling that Nina Simone has been omni-present and omni-scient in my life for 60 years and that this wonderful reissue of her work is on…Omnivore! Hmmm….

Who knew?