NINA SIMONE – HIGH PRIESTESS OF SOUL LP – GOOD+ 1967 UK MONO JAZZ SOUL

Nina Simone – High Priestess Of Soul
(Philips Records  1967   BL7764  Mono)
Matrix No’s: 1L1/2L1 – UK Pressing

Vinyl in Good+ condition
(there are quite a few surface marks visible on the vinyl which do give pops/clicks/crackles throughout – vinyl defect at very start of side one which gives a few clicks & same on side 2 – vinyl played through without skips but more sensitive deck may be problematic)

Flipback Sleeve in Excellent/Very Good+ condition
– front just has one small tear at opening edge – back cover has 3 inch tear on bottom edge from opening

Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher’s family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. When she began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education and become a classical pianist she was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendering of “I Loves You, Porgy” was a hit in the United States in 1958. Over the length of her career Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958—when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue—and 1974.

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic contralto. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience–performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years old.

In the early 1960s, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again. Simone’s music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the United States. In later years, she lived abroad, finally settling in France in 1992. She received a Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000 and was a fifteen-time Grammy Award nominee over the course of her career.

High Priestess of Soul is a studio album by singer, pianist and songwriter Nina Simone. The songs are accompanied by a large band directed and arranged by Hal Mooney. The album contains pop songs (such as “Don’t You Pay Them No Mind”) and African American gospel and folk-related songs written by Simone herself (such as “Take Me to the Water” and “Come Ye”). After this album title – an attempt to broaden her appeal by management execs – Nina Simone was sometimes titled “the high priestess of soul”, although she completely rejected the title herself because it placed a label on her as an artist. However, according to her daughter, Lisa, she never hated that moniker.