Nina Simone – Nina Simone Sings The Blue ( 180g LP)

Label: Speakers Corner / RCA LSP-3789 – 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl – AAA 100% Analogue Limited Edition
Pure Analogue Audiophile Mastering – Pressed at Pallas Germany
This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Originally released in 1967, this is Nina Simone’s debut release for RCA Records. Featuring a stellar backing band that includes, amongst others, Eric Gale and Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, Sings
The Blues is an incredible mix of blues, soul, gospel, folk, jazz, and more. With Nina handling piano and vocal duties, the band slow burns through a killer selection of songs (including a track from Porgy & Bess and one whose lyrics are penned by the immortal Langston Hughes).

The recently-deceased Nina Simone singing at her passionate best on this 1967 release. This is a tremendous artist accurately reproducing native blues in a most compelling fashion. There are no mannerisms. Affectation never enters the picture. There is no hiding behind big bands, studied arrangements or audio effects.
The present blues album was recorded during what was undisputedly her most productive phase. It is a recording which does not swim with the tide of the times in that it does not employ massive forces or seek the twang of electrification. Instead Nina Simone’s wonderfully sleek contralto voice bathes in the gentle timbre of an organ and a pithy, pulsating – but by no means stomping – rhythm. The cool, unemotional number “Sings The Blues“ guarantees riveting tension and the authenticity of the genre which is, of course, the be all and end all of music for every black artist. Surely no compilation, no matter how carefully conceived, could possibly mark the diva’s 70th birthday in February and sudden death in April 2203 better than this re-release.