Nina Simone - Pastel Blues (1965) Reissue 2006

There are voices in the history of music that simply transcend. They break the boundaries of music itself and speak to the soul of the listener and hit them on a personal level. These voices don’t have to be technically perfect; they have to be sincere and special though. Nina Simone doesn’t possess your typical angelic female voice; she sounds sincerely troubled, heavy and her voice is deep and sometimes rough. Granted, it may take time to grow on you but give her time and this woman will win you over.

This album’s title is a bit misleading as Pastel Blues is not all about the blues in terms of musical direction rather than the blues we all feel at some point. Pastel Blues draws influences from soul, jazz, the blues, classical and gospel music. And if the classical influences surprise you, for Nina Simone they’re quite normal as she was a child prodigy and aspired to be a concert pianist; singing came later in her life as she played in small clubs and was asked to sing as well. For example the piano playing on “End of the Line” has definitely a classical flavor from the very beginning. In addition, the instrumentation on this album although not lush it’s meticulous; even on a track like “Tell Me More and More and Then Some” that follows a more subtle approach with regards to instrumentation, playing is of the highest quality. Of course, the highlight of every Nina Simone LP is her unique voice. On Pastel Blues, Nina howls, moans, mourns and makes full use of her deep voice singing regarding issues such as racism and civil rights (“Strange Fruit”), love, the blues or even religion. Unfortunately, some tend to characterize the album’s first eight tracks as mere introduction to the last song. “Sinnerman”, originally an African American spiritual song, is one of Simone’s most well known tracks and for a good reason. Its deeply religious nature combined with Nina Simone’s excellent performance both lyrically and instrumentally make it the highlight of the album. Nevertheless, focus on this song only and you’ll miss one hell of an album.

Lastly, Pastel Blues is not just a brilliant album for fans of vocal jazz but an opportunity to listen to a uniquely wonderful voice at its peak combined with some serious instrumentation. What’s even more incredible, is the fact that it was released on the same year as I Put a Spell on You, another highlight of Simone’s career. At the same time, both albums are quite accessible for fans of numerous genres and a great opportunity to appreciate on the best female vocalists of the 20th century.

Review by manosg, SputnikMusic.com

Exact Audio Copy V0.99 prebeta 5 from 4. May 2009

EAC extraction logfile from 24. October 2009, 13:43

Nina Simone / Pastel Blues

Used drive : PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-217F Adapter: 7 ID: 0

Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No

Read offset correction : 96
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track

Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 128 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "ARTIST=%a" -T "TITLE=%t" -T "ALBUM=%g" -T "DATE=%y" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%n" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%x" -T "GENRE=%m" -T "ALBUM ARTIST=%v" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%v" -T "COMMENT=EAC V0.99 prebeta 5, Secure Mode, Test & Copy, Accura


TOC of the extracted CD

Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 3:23.15 | 0 | 15239
2 | 3:23.15 | 2:41.05 | 15240 | 27319
3 | 6:04.20 | 2:57.12 | 27320 | 40606
4 | 9:01.32 | 2:43.32 | 40607 | 52863
5 | 11:44.64 | 3:10.56 | 52864 | 67169
6 | 14:55.45 | 4:03.40 | 67170 | 85434
7 | 18:59.10 | 3:03.27 | 85435 | 99186
8 | 22:02.37 | 3:31.40 | 99187 | 115051
9 | 25:34.02 | 10:22.00 | 115052 | 161701


Track 1

Filename D:\EACrips\01 - Be My Husband.wav

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Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 85BAF7EA
Copy CRC 85BAF7EA
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [0A5C1C30]
Copy OK

Track 2

Filename D:\EACrips\02 - Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out.wav

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Peak level 99.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 9164EA23
Copy CRC 9164EA23
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [0D8E87CD]
Copy OK

Track 3

Filename D:\EACrips\03 - End of the Line.wav

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Peak level 63.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 6A672FFC
Copy CRC 6A672FFC
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [AF021C63]
Copy OK

Track 4

Filename D:\EACrips\04 - Trouble in Mind.wav

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Peak level 100.0 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 7A017B03
Copy CRC 7A017B03
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [2D2A8DE9]
Copy OK

Track 5

Filename D:\EACrips\05 - Tell Me More and More and Then Some.wav

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Peak level 79.9 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 0E0C9EE6
Copy CRC 0E0C9EE6
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [0B327102]
Copy OK

Track 6

Filename D:\EACrips\06 - Chilly Winds Don't Blow.wav

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Peak level 87.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC C9F7CAFB
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [599D801E]
Copy OK

Track 7

Filename D:\EACrips\07 - Ain't No Use.wav

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Peak level 99.2 %
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Test CRC 5EB4E3ED
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Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [B327248C]
Copy OK

Track 8

Filename D:\EACrips\08 - Strange Fruit.wav

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Peak level 80.7 %
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC A4060EC1
Copy CRC A4060EC1
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [F19A0E21]
Copy OK

Track 9

Filename D:\EACrips\09 - Sinnerman.wav

Pre-gap length 0:00:02.60

Peak level 92.2 %
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC CBB89B68
Copy CRC CBB89B68
Accurately ripped (confidence 2) [19EC9889]
Copy OK


All tracks accurately ripped

No errors occurred

End of status report

foobar2000 1.2 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1
log date: 2016-12-07 19:39:31

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
Analyzed: Nina Simone / Pastel Blues
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

DR Peak RMS Duration Track
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
DR16 0.00 dB -18.42 dB 3:23 01-Be My Husband
DR9 0.00 dB -14.59 dB 2:41 02-Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out
DR10 -3.88 dB -17.74 dB 2:57 03-End of the Line
DR10 0.00 dB -14.07 dB 2:43 04-Trouble in Mind
DR11 -1.94 dB -18.03 dB 3:11 05-Tell Me More and More and Then Some
DR10 -1.18 dB -14.87 dB 4:04 06-Chilly Winds Don't Blow
DR12 -0.06 dB -15.34 dB 3:03 07-Ain't No Use
DR12 -1.86 dB -20.20 dB 3:32 08-Strange Fruit
DR11 -0.70 dB -15.44 dB 10:22 09-Sinnerman
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Number of tracks: 9
Official DR value: DR11

Samplerate: 44100 Hz
Channels: 2
Bits per sample: 16
Bitrate: 907 kbps
Codec: FLAC
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