1961 · Album
Forbidden Fruit
Colpix Records · Album Position: Third studio album, second for Colpix
The Trio Takes the Room
A DownBeat reviewer heard something honest here—not quite jazz, but genuine potential.
Forbidden Fruit arrived as Simone's second album for Colpix, recorded in the studio with the same trio that had backed her on the live recordings surrounding it. The presence of that steady rhythm section shaped everything captured on tape—there was no need to audition new players or rebuild chemistry. The trio was already in place, already familiar with Simone's demands and her unpredictable shifts in temperament and interpretation. You can hear that ease in the playing, the way the musicians anticipate her rather than follow her.
What emerged was something the critics couldn't quite name. A DownBeat reviewer of the time didn't hear a jazz album, exactly. But the same reviewer acknowledged that Simone had the equipment and genuine potential to become a fairly good jazz vocalist. That's honest praise—not hype, just recognition that she was developing the chops and sensibility the form required. The album sits between worlds: too classical in its roots, too song-focused in its approach, but carrying real depth in her phrasing and commitment.
This record belongs in the middle of Simone's catalog—neither her breakthrough nor her peak, but a solid working album where a talented musician was still finding her voice in the recording studio. It's the kind of album that matters more for what it shows about her trajectory than for any single definitive performance, though there are good moments throughout.
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