In spring 1957, while playing gigs in Philadelphia, Simone recorded a demo (which is believed to be the basis of the unofficial Simone album Gifted & Black released in 1970). A few months later, as Alan Light tells it in What Happened, Miss Simone? - A Biography (2011), someone at Bethlehem Records in New York heard the demo recordings and became "interested in signing her to the label". Nadine Cohodas, in Princess Noire: The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone (2010), writes: Bethlehem "employed Lee Kraft as an occasional talent scout. He brought musical prospects to Gus Wildi, Bethlehem’s founder, and then Wildi and his associates decided if they wanted to make a record. Kraft had heard Nina at a club in Philadelphia and thought Bethlehem should record her." However, continues Cohodas, there is another version to the story. "Vivian Bailey, a Philadelphia businessman who first heard Nina at the Rittenhouse, said he had arranged for her to make a demo [...] He took the tape to New York and played it for Wildi. 'Her beautiful and unique vocal quality caused us to sign her immediately to a recording contract,' Wildi recalled."
