Long time ago, I travelled across the Atlantic. It was on an old plane of the Icelandic Airlines, the cheapest way to go to America at that time: from Frankfurt to Reykavik, a stopover to refuel, to New York. I had one small suitcase, with summer clothes, a few gifts for my fiancee, whom I was visiting, and two LP records. Why I was carrying those to the place where I had no record player and meant to spend only a couple of months, I have no idea now.

One record had a dark-blue cover with the expressive face of Nina Simone, or rather just her eyes looking past you, visible under bright letters: Sings the Blues. She was then still a young singer, well-known only on the jazz circuit, so it was probably my equally youthful pride that although living in Warsaw, far from the „big world“ of NY jazz clubs, I knew of her, appreciated her amazing voice and owned this beautifully arranged record, with songs like “Backlash Blues,“ “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl“ (her tribute to the great Bessie Smith), and the dangerous folk tune “The House of the Rising Sun.“

They served free hard liquor then high-up-in-the-sky, perhaps to sweeten the slow and long crossing. I had a couple of shots of congac, unaware of its impact since I drank it for the first time in my life. When we landed, late at night, in New York, I tried to steady myself with Nina Simone’s songs. It probably looked rather strange to the people in the waiting hall, when I walked, somewhat wobbly, across the floor swinging my suitcase and singing loudly: There is a house in New Orleans…

Decades later, I still love Nina Simone’s voice and still have this record.

– G.D.