Sinnerman

Nina Simone · 1965 · On the album Pastel Blues (1965).

Context

"Sinnerman" is a traditional spiritual that Nina Simone arranged; she knew it as a child from the revival meetings where her mother, a Methodist minister, used it. She turned it into a piece of more than ten minutes that often closed her concerts in the early 1960s. The version on the album Pastel Blues (Philips, 1965) lasts 10 min 15; AllMusic judges it explosive and superior to the rest of the record.

In the genealogy of jazz

This track belongs to Vocal jazz, scat, vocalese. Among the origins and influences of Vocal jazz, scat, vocalese: Classic blues (women singers), Swing, big bands, Bebop (Minton's, Monroe's).

By the same artist

• Feeling Good (1965)
• I Put a Spell on You (1965)
• Mississippi Goddam (1964)
• Four Women (1966)
• To Be Young, Gifted and Black (1970)
• My Baby Just Cares for Me (1958)

Sources

• EN: Pastel Blues
• EN: Sinner Man

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