I Put A Spell On You and Pastel Blues by Nina Simone are being reissued on vinyl this November. The two renowned albums were first released in 1965 and each feature some of Simone’s most poignant and iconic tracks.
These releases come as part of Verve Label Group and UMe’s audiophile vinyl reissue series ‘Acoustic Sounds’ that launched in August this year.
Nina Simone was a singer, songwriter, musician, arranger and civil rights activist; Her music career contributed an enormous amount to the jazz, rhythm and blues and soul genre of the late 1950s, up until her death in 2003.
Simone was a fifteen-time Grammy Award nominee, winning the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 2000. I Put A Spell On You and Pastel Blues are two of seven albums recorded in four years from 1963-1967.
Of the two 1965 albums, I Put A Spell On You was first released in June of that year. The records first track, sharing the name with the album title, is a song written by Jalacy “Screamin’ Jay” Hawkins that helped drive the album to the top forty charts of the time. The album also features Simone’s majestic rendition of ‘Feeling Good’.
Pastel Blues came out four months later in October 1965. This record featured Simone’s momentous and touching version of the protest song ‘Strange Fruit’, which was released by her during an incredibly strenuous time in the Civil Rights Movement. This album also includes her dynamic and powerful cover of ‘Sinnerman’.
The vinyl reissue series aims to offer an “audiophile grade version of some of the most historic and best jazz records ever recorded”. It began with Stan Getz and João Gilberto’ Getz/Gilberto and Louis Armstrong and Oscar Peterson’s Louis Armstrong Meets Oscar Peterson.
The Nina Simone reissued albums will be available on November 6th.
Words by Aisha Fatunmbi-Randall
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