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Nina Simone at Town Hall (1959)

Where the lyrics of Nina Simone at Town Hall take you, and where it was really made.

The record was made from a concert that Colpix arranged to record, yet three of its songs are studio takes cut a month later.

Key places

Recorded at Town Hall, September 1959 (1959)

Recording site Town Hall — The album is based on Simone's performance at Town Hall in New York on 12 September 1959. This concert hall is the place where the record was made. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Nina Simone at Town Hall (also released as At Town Hall): first live album by Nina Simone
• Released December 1959 on Colpix Records
• Third album of 1959 and her second for Colpix
• Based on her performance at Town Hall, New York, on 12 September 1959
• All songs from the concert appear on the album, but three tracks are studio versions cut the following month

Background

• 1959 was the year Simone became a star, largely because of this concert
• Her first album, Little Girl Blue, came out on Bethlehem Records in February 1959 after about fourteen months in production
• She signed a new deal with Colpix Records in April and recorded The Amazing Nina Simone that month, released in July
• A Bethlehem track was doing well in charts and became a hit with "I Loves You, Porgy"
• The Town Hall concert was her debut at a major New York venue and her first concert before an audience, after playing only clubs
• She was the headliner on a bill with the Horace Silver and J. J. Johnson quintets
• Colpix arranged for the performance to be recorded

Recording

• The accompaniment was most likely Wilbur Ware on bass and Ben Riley on drums
• Simone had not rehearsed with these musicians before the curtain rose
• The original versions of "The Other Woman", "Cotton-Eyed Joe" and "Wild Is the Wind" were replaced by studio versions

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina; the sixth of eight children.
• Began playing piano at age three or four and gave a classical debut recital at age 12.
• Failed to gain admission to the Curtis Institute of Music, which she attributed to racism.
• Played piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City and adopted the stage name "Nina Simone" in 1954, after which she began singing as well.

Career

• Debut album Little Girl Blue (1958) included "I Loves You, Porgy", her only Billboard top 20 single in the US.
• Recorded more than 40 albums up to 1974; her 1960s protest songs such as "Mississippi Goddam" tied her to the civil rights movement.
• Left the US in 1970 and settled in Europe, later living in Liberia, Barbados, the Netherlands, and France.
• Autobiography I Put a Spell on You was published in 1991; she continued performing until her death on April 21, 2003.
• Known as the "High Priestess of Soul"; Rolling Stone ranked her No. 21 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Members

• Solo artist; she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist Al Schackman throughout most of her career.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critic John S. Wilson of The New York Times wrote that Simone "easily held her own" alongside Horace Silver and J. J. Johnson
• Wilson called Simone a gifted interpreter, a singer who makes each song her own
• Wilson wrote that by the end of a song she had reshaped it so far that most of its original colouring was gone
• The show was described as capturing both the audience and the critics

Reappraisal

• Sources give no later critical ratings for this album

Records

• Colpix issued 14 Nina Simone singles between 1959 and 1963
• Two singles from the Town Hall album were issued with its tracks as A-sides
• Later Colpix singles used tracks from this album as B-sides, namely the sixth, seventh, eighth and tenth singles of that run
• The record label bears the title Town Hall, and the album was packaged by Helm Graphic in New York

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The concert was billed as part of the "Jazz at Town Hall" series.
• The original Town Hall versions of three songs were replaced by studio cuts recorded the following month.
• Simone's Town Hall performance was her first concert before an audience after years of club work.
• Some editions of the album list the Town Hall recording with Colpix's label and publisher credits for each track.
• One early pressing's label bears the title Town Hall.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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