Black Gold (Nina Simone album)

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Black Gold
Live album by
Nina Simone
Released1970
RecordedOctober 26, 1969
VenuePhilharmonic Hall, New York City
GenreJazz, pop, folk
LabelRCA Victor
ProducerStroud Productions (Andrew Stroud)
Nina Simone chronology
To Love Somebody
(1969) 		Black Gold
(1970) 		Here Comes the Sun
(1971)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic?[1]

Black Gold is a live album by American jazz musician Nina Simone recorded in 1969 at the Philharmonic Hall, New York City. She got a 1971 nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, but lost to Aretha Franklin's cover of "Don't Play That Song".

The album is especially notable because it features the civil rights anthem song "To Be Young, Gifted and Black". The performance that night also included a calypso version of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne" (which Simone had recorded on To Love Somebody), but there was no room for it on the album.

With the release of the album also came an LP called Come Together with Nina Simone. It was a recorded interview about the album. The questions were provided in written form, so that radio DJs could ask the questions and play Simone's recorded answers, as if she were in the studio.[2][3]

Track listing[edit]

No.TitleWriter(s)Length
1."Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair"Traditional5:58
2."Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" (Vocal by Emile Latimer)Traditional4:00
3."Ain't Got No, I Got Life"Galt MacDermot, James Rado, Gerome Ragni5:28
4."Westwind"Caiphus Semenya9:30
5."Who Knows Where the Time Goes?"Sandy Denny8:09
6."The Assignment Sequence"Jan Hendin6:57
7."To Be Young, Gifted and Black"Weldon Irvine, Nina Simone9:34

Personnel[edit]

  • Nina Simone – piano, vocals, arrangements
  • Emile Latimer – guitar, vocals on "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair"
  • Tom Smith – guitar
  • Weldon Irvine – organ
  • Don Alias – drums, percussion
  • Jumma Santos – congas, percussion
Technical
  • Ed Begley - recording engineer
  • Jack Medkiff - cover design

Charts[edit]

Chart (1970) Peak position
US Billboard 200 149[4]
US Hot R&B LPs 21[5]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Allmusic Review
  2. ^ David Brun Lambert: Nina Simone: het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres (dutch translation from french biography, Sirene, 2006)
  3. ^ "Come Together With Nina Simone". YouTube. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  4. ^ "Nina Simone - Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  5. ^ "Nina Simone - Chart History (Hot R&B/Hip-Hop albums)". Billboard. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
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