Porter , Rodgers and Hart and Gershwin ’ s Broadway shows had become detached from their original contexts . To Nina Simone , “ I Loves You Porgy ” had become that curious thing , a “ standard ”, by which is usually meant a musical item used as the basis for improvisation , in ways often remote from its original dramatic significance . One of the things that distinguished Nina Simone from many of her peers , and from jazz singing more strictly conceived , was that she preserved more of the narrative significance of a song than most of the jazz divas . Where Ella Fitzgerald could take a song and turn it into a vividly playful work of musical art , but lose much of its libretto , where Billie Holiday could mine a lyric for personal significance , Nina was in this respect alone more like an actor on stage , inhabiting a part that was both her and not , a projection rather than an improvisation .
“ I Loves You Porgy ” was to stay with her for the rest of her career , right down to the final concert . It received arguably its definitive version on Nina ’ s first recording , though this was still some way ahead . Her immediate future was shaped by a return to the Midtown Bar & Grill , this time with a certain weight of expectation . Harry Steward ’ s joint was filled night after night with a crowd who had heard remarkable things about this young black woman who seemed possessed of none of the charm-school mannerisms of most female entertainers ; indeed , who seemed to carry around with her a proud reserve . They could only have guessed at its source , as a remnant of her deep disappointment at not being billed in more elevated surroundings . The Gershwin song , which she first performed without rehearsal and with the kind of spontaneity that can only come from having steeped herself in the melody and lyrics many times over , was to become a kind of signature ,
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