Nina Simone - Pastel Blues (1965)

Pastel Blues is a studio album by Jazz singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone (1933–2003). It was recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York City and released in 1965 by Philips Records. The name Pastel Blues is somewhat deceiving because the songs on the album incorporate different musical styles besides the blues, such as jazz, soul and folk music.

If this is blues, it's blues in the Billie Holiday sense, not the Muddy Waters one. 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 is her frantic ten-minute rendition of the traditional "Sinnerman," an explosive tour de force that dwarfs everything else on the album.    

Tracklist:

A1	Be My Husband
A2	Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out
A3	End Of The Line
A4	Trouble In Mind
A5	Tell Me More And More And Then Some
A6	Chilly Winds Don't Blow
B1	Ain't No Use
B2	Strange Fruit
B3	Sinnerman

Nina Simone - Pastel Blues (1965)
(256 kbps, cover art included)