Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone

This is one of Nina Simone's more subdued mid-'60s LPs, putting the emphasis on her piano rather than band arrangements. It's rather slanted toward torch-blues ballads like Strange Fruit, Trouble In Mind, Billie Holiday's own composition Tell Me More and More and Then Some, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. Simone's then-husband, Andy Stroud, wrote Be My Husband, an effective adaptation of a traditional blues chant. By far the most impressive track, and the reason for it being an RT Essential, is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional Sinnerman, an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.

Available here on LP.

Nina Simone

Pastel Blues

Universal
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP

£27.99

Black
Released 03/02/2023Catalogue Number

5360571

Learn more
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
CD

£6.99

Released 01/09/2013Catalogue Number

9888700

Learn more
Nina Simone

Pastel Blues

Universal
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
LP

£27.99

Black
Released 03/02/2023Catalogue Number

5360571

Learn more
Album artwork for Pastel Blues by Nina Simone
CD

£6.99

Released 01/09/2013Catalogue Number

9888700

Learn more

This is one of Nina Simone's more subdued mid-'60s LPs, putting the emphasis on her piano rather than band arrangements. It's rather slanted toward torch-blues ballads like Strange Fruit, Trouble In Mind, Billie Holiday's own composition Tell Me More and More and Then Some, and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. Simone's then-husband, Andy Stroud, wrote Be My Husband, an effective adaptation of a traditional blues chant. By far the most impressive track, and the reason for it being an RT Essential, is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional Sinnerman, an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.

Available here on LP.