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Kim Nalley’s live Nina Simone tribute CD short-listed for Grammy Award |
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Written by Jerry Karp
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Friday, 27 October 2006 |
She Put A Spell On Me: Kim Nalley Sings Nina Simone up for Best
Jazz Vocal Album
 Kim Nalley
Kim Nalley & CE Jazz & Blues are thrilled
to announce that their 2006 CD, She
Put A Spell On Me: Kim Nalley Sings Nina Simone, has been short
listed for Grammy Award consideration in the Best Jazz Vocal category.
Active members of the Recording Academy vote from among the CDs on this
list to select the five nominees in each category that will go on to
compete for the Grammy. While the competition in the Jazz Vocals
category is formidable, including releases by Diana Krall, Nancy
Wilson, Madeleine Peyroux, Freddy Cole and Patricia Barber, the
selection of She Put a Spell on Me represents an exciting
acknowledgement, on an important industry forum, of the excellence of
the CD and of Nalley’s world-class musical talent.
National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences voters will find, She Put A Spell On Me: Kim Nalley Sings
Nina Simone at Field 10 (Jazz), Category 46 (Best Vocal Jazz
Album), Album 049.
“I’ve always been influenced by Nina Simone,” Nalley says, “by her
singing and her absolutely amazing piano playing. And I’ve always been
moved both by her music and by her insistence on speaking out about
civil rights and women’s rights.”
She Put A Spell On Me was
recorded live in 2005 during a five-night run at Jazz at Pearl’s, the
classy San Francisco nightclub that Nalley co-owns with her husband,
Steve Sheraton. Appearing on the CD with Nalley are pianist Tammy Hall,
trumpeter Allan Smith, guitarist Greg Skaff, drummer Kent Bryson
and bassist Mike Zisman. The CD immediately attracted glowing reviews,
not least for its impressive range of material. Nalley takes on
difficult and controversial material such as “Mississippi Goddamn,”
Simone's protest of anti-civil rights terrorism, moving jazz ballads
like Irving Berlin’s “You Can Have Him,” African chant in “See-Line
Woman” and well-known folk tunes such as “House for the Rising Sun.”
The degree to which Nalley succeeded in capturing the essence of Nina
Simone’s spirit, while remaining true to her own musical heart and
style, has now been made clear once again by this well-deserved
recognition from the Grammy Awards nominators for She Put A Spell On Me: Kim Nalley Sings
Nina Simone.
Pianist Tammy Hall, another musician heavily influenced heavily by Nina
Simone, worked closely with Nalley to help develop the sound, spirit
and repertoire for this glorious Simone tribute. Tammy Hall’s recent
CD, Blue Divine, is also
short-listed in two categories, Best Jazz Instrumental CD and Best Jazz
Instrumental Solo for her playing on the song “Hymn for Lacy B.” |
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 Tuesday, 02 December 2008
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