Broadway Blues Ballads

by Nina Simone

Product Description:

Personnel includes: Nina Simone (vocals, piano); Horace Ott's Orchestra, Hal Mooney's Orchestra.

Recorded in New York, in 1964. Originally released on Philips (PHS 600 148). Includes liner notes by James Galvin and Langston Hughes.

Personnel: Nina Simone (vocals, piano); Rudy Stevenson (flute); Bobby Hamilton (drums); Lisle Atkinson (percussion); Hal Mooney.

Nina Simone recorded BROADWAY BLUES BALLADS for the Philips label in 1964 as an attempt to broaden her appeal to a more mainstream audience. This release is notable for introducing two now-classic Nina Simone tracks, "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" with its under-the-surface civil rights connotations, and "See-Line Woman," an ironic song about a high class prostitute, featuring Simone's own African-style percussive arrangement.

While nothing on the album really qualifies as blues, the album features such Broadway show tunes as Cole Porter's "The Laziest Gal in Town," and Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Something Wonderful," which loses all its cloying qualities in Simone's hands. The heavily-orchestrated arrangements, which are firmly rooted in the mid-'60s pop sound, are produced by Hal Mooney.