Celebrating spring with Carmen McRae

Here's Carmen McRae's unjustly overlooked 1971 recording of "Silent Spring" along with "Some Other Spring" from 1962.

BMG reissuing Nina Simone and Her Friends LP on Dec 3

Bethlehem cobbled together the 1959 album around 4 unissued Nina Simone tracks, notably the hard swingin' "African Mailman".   

Here's the scoop...

Originally released by Bethlehem Records in 1959, Nina Simone and Her Friends was a compilation album which combined the unreleased tracks from Simone's Little Girl Blue recording session in 1957 with songs previously issued as part of 1956's Bethlehem's Girlfriends album by two other former Bethlehem artists, jazz singers Carmen McRae and  Chris Connor who had moved on to Decca and Atlantic respectively. 

The clear highlight of the set is Nina Simone's pounding original instrumental "African Mailman" in which Simone takes off on a tear leaving bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Al 'Tootie' Heath struggling to keep up. Evidently the future floor filler was cut in a single take so we can all be thankful that the recording engineer at the time had the tape rolling. Simone never cut anything like it again.  

Check the track list for Nina Simone and Her Friends (out December 3 in stereo remastered by Michael Graves on limited emerald green 180-gram vinyl remastered by Kevin Gray) following the original studio recording of "African Mailman" below.  

NINA SIMONE AND HER FRIENDS

1.     Nina Simone – “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands” 

2.     Chris Connor – “Someone to Watch Over Me” 

3.     Carmen McRae – “Old Devil Moon” 

4.     Nina Simone – “I Loves You, Porgy” 

5.     Chris Connor – “I Concentrate on You” 

6.     Carmen McRae – “You Made Me Care” 

7.     Nina Simone – “For All We Know” 

8.     Chris Connor – “From This Moment On” 

9.     Carmen McRae – “Too Much in Love to Care” 

10.   Nina Simone – “African Mailman” 

11.   Chris Connor – “All This and Heaven Too” 

12.   Carmen McRae – “Last Time for Love” 

Happy Birthday Carmen McRae

Remembering the great Carmen McRae with a 1968 performance backed by the Clarke-Boland Big Band.

Happy Birthday Carmen McRae