May 1965, London
Eagerly anticipating the arrival of Nina Simone in London in June, as the founder of her newly-created UK appreciation society, I had just one or two of her early Colpix LPs missing from my collection. One Saturday I was checking different record stores in Central London for what was then the most rare of those albums. When I found just about one import copy of Forbidden Fruit in a jazz shop on Berwick St., I asked the store manager if he would please save it for me! Within an hour I was back with the cash and took my prize possession home and played it nonstop. It became one of my favourite LPs in particular because of the Oscar Brown Jr. songs, the tongue-in-cheek title track and the emotion-filled Rags & Old Iron (an acapella version of which I recorded years later, making it available digitally in 2018). The LP became a favourite of my Dad’s when he would listen to it on Sunday mornings, commenting that he liked ‘that kind of jazz,’ songs like ‘Where Can I Go Without You,’ ‘Memphis In June’ and ‘I’ll Look Around’ and more…
This amazing video captures Nina at her best in the early ’60s….remarkable….
