Nina Simone would have been 80 years old yesterday, February 21st, and in honor of that date the Nina Simone Estate has released a track called "The Time Is Now" a self-recorded demo of solo voice and piano which the jazz icon made at her home in Mount in Vernon, circa 1966. The track comes to us from the archives of Gerrit De Bruin and was featured on the Hidden Treasures album, a limited edition Dutch pressing of only 2000 copies which was included in David Brun-Lambert's biography of the influential singer and composer but has never been unavailable to the general public before now. Listen below and once you're firmly in a "Black is the color" state of mind, see Simone's full Montreux Jazz performance from 1976, which we posted yesterday in her memory.
