SILK AND SOUL
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Simone
took time out of a schedule full of performance and activism
to record the followup album, Silk and Soul, which
took around two weeks to record. Many of the same musicians
form the core group that supports her—Purdie, Gale,
Stevenson, Hayes, bassist Gene Taylor—but there are
also horns (trumpet, saxes, flute, trombone) which widen
the textures available to arrangers Simone and Weldon Irvine.
Ultimately, Silk and Soul is a more subdued and,
on the surface at least, slightly less confrontational production.
Make no mistake, though, conviction is there in every note
Nina sings, and that conviction lends gravitas to songs
that might at first seem to have little value. “When
I’ choosing songs, I look for the lyrics,” Simone
once said. “If the music is inferior, you can do an
arrangement and make it meaningful. But if the lyrics aren’t
good, I would rather do a chant. Singing a song with good
lyrics is like acting, each word has to be given its full
meaning.”
Simone opens with “It Be’s That
Way Sometime,” a song written by younger brother Sam
Waymon. The song has a funky groove that percolates along
behind Simone’s soaring vocal work. “The Look
of Love” is one of the two or three best performances
of the oft-recorded song on record, and a reminder of how
gentle Simone could be with a truly romantic ballad. Similarly,
she takes probably the weakest song, compositionally, on
the album, “Cherish,” and turns it into a tour-de-force
as she overdubs her vocals to sing her own harmonies. “Go
to Hell” is by Morris Bailey, pianist and composer,
and brother of Jimmy Smith’s drummer, Donald Bailey.
It’s a strong gospel-styled ‘big song,’
sounding like it could have come from a black Broadway (or
off-Broadway) musical production of the ‘70s. “Love
O Love” another gospel and blues influenced number,
composed by Simone’s husband/manager Andy Stroud,
is performed by Nina with piano accompaniment only—a
precursor of the upcoming Nina Simone and Piano. Simone’s
piano work here shows a profound influence of New Orleans-style
piano and perhaps some knowledge of the Harlem piano professors.
The plagal cadences and finger-snapping beat
of Billy Taylor’s “I Wish I Knew It Would Feel
to Be Free” speak again of the profound influence
of gospel on American secular popular music. Her performance
of “Turn Me On” is reminiscent of the simmering
balladry of Otis Redding. The set closes with Simone’s
original love song, “Consummation,” on which
she’s backed by a swirling string and woodwind section
as well as her regular ensemble. This song is as dramatically
Nina Simone as any performance you will hear, and one can
probably determine whether or not one will enjoy her work
by one’s reaction to this track, as it is a distillation
of all the most representative and unique elements of her
vocal style. It also manages to tie her in with dramatic,
poetic French singers, including Edith Piaf and Charles
Aznevour.
The remastered edition includes two songs
originally released as singles. The first is “Why
Must Your Love Well Be So Dry,” a funky soul number
that includes a complete horn section as well as Weldon
Irvine on organ. Jerry Jemmett sets up a percolating bass
riff that opens and continues to underlie the other single,
“Save Me.” These two tracks point toward the
sound that Simone would utilize in live performances over
the next couple of years, as evidenced by the live work
on most of ‘Nuff Said. Following the stripped
down Nina Simone and Piano, came 1969’s To
Love Somebody, followed by Black Gold in 1970,
and Here Comes the Sun in 1971. Emergency Ward
followed in 1972, a weird affair that featured two long
adaptations of George Harrison compositions. The first,
“My Sweet Lord” is interspersed with Simone’s
reworking of “Today Is a Killer,” and features
Simone on piano and vocals, brother Sam Waymon on vocals,
and the Bethany Baptist Church Choir of South Jamaica, NY.
It was recorded live in concert at Fort Dix in November
of 1971. The other track is a performance of Harrison’s
“Isn’t It a Pity” with Simone doing vocals
and playing piano, recorded in the studio. The final chapter
of Nina Simone’s RCA years was written upon the release
of It Is Finished in 1974. This final album includes
“The Pusher,” the incisive and “Funkier
Than a Mosquito’s Tweeter,” and the African-influenced
“Dambala.”
>>Forever
Young, Gifted and Black plus Nina Simone For Lovers
and Love Songs
