The Nina Simone performance Jessica Pratt hails as a masterpiece: “It’s really heavy and beautiful”
The music of Jessica Pratt flutters into your life like a Summer breeze. Bolstered by the Californian’s quirky vocal lilts and heartfelt guitar twanging, Pratt’s fragile brand of freak folk is a nostalgic daydream. From her 2012 self-titled debut right up to 2024’s Here in the Pitch, the elegant songstress is constantly spinning her thread, reimagining and fine-tuning her sophisticated sonic world.
While Pratt is a burst of majesty in her own right, even the dreamiest of artists have their own heroes. In her mind, she owes everything to one very important woman: Nina Simone.
In Pratt’s own words, Simone’s influence was vital when crafting her 2019 record, Quiet Signs. Speaking to The Line of Best Fit, Pratt praises the jazz superstar’s stunning live vocals and explains how thoroughly they inspired her creative process.
“I think my singing has evolved on the new record but some of the songs are a bit more challenging to sing accurately every time, so I went through a phase of listening to my favourite singers,” she explained. “I revisited Nina Simone’s Live At Carnegie Hall album during the last five months I was making [Quiet Signs], especially in the last half of the record when I was doing the more tedious stuff like the mixing.”
Pratt first discovered the Live At Carnegie Hall record at the age of 15 – and it changed her life. “I grew up in a town called Redding and my family used to go to thrift stores a lot and I found this for like 25 cents,” she recalled. “I knew who Nina Simone was – I hadn’t gone crazy into her discography – but I grew up in a house where I was exposed to a lot of cool things, so I was aware of her.”
“I listened to that record obsessively,” she continued. “It’s such a brilliant performance the whole way through. It was also her first solo performance at Carnegie Hall and it’s so crazy to imagine that! It was a bit of a personal sacrifice for the man who promoted it, because people thought she wasn’t going to be able to carry the show on her own, but she definitely does.”
In particular, Pratt notes that Plain Gold Ring is the crème de la crème of Simone’s live performances. “It’s really heavy and beautiful,” she enthused. “I think the lyrics are amazing and her ability to translate sorrow is so adept. There’s also a lot of non-verbal singing – the whole beginning of the song is just a mournful vocal riff – and that style of singing has always resonated with me.”
The live version of Plain Gold Ring transforms the original version into something desperate, more gut-wrenching. The longing, rumbling in a thunder of drums, floats above the chime of lovesick piano keys. But Pratt firmly believes the whole record is worth consuming – even the cover tracks. “There’s a joke that Nina Simone always performs the best version of any song she ‘covers’,” Pratt laughed. “That’s definitely true.”
It’s not the first time Pratt has sung Simone’s praises. She also whipped out her vinyl of Live At Carnegie Hall during an Amoeba ‘What’s In My Bag?’ interview. “I’ve never heard a Nina Simone song that I don’t like,” she admitted, proudly looking down at the vinyl.
