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Nina Simone: Nina Simone at Town Hall

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Colpix Records
Released: 1959
Time:
 39:46
Category: Vocal, Soul, Jazz
Producer(s): Bob Blake, Jack Gold
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.ninasimone.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair (Traditional) - 3:23
[2] Exactly Like You (Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields) - 3:06
[3] The Other Woman (Jessie Mae Robinson) - 2:52
[4] Under the Lowest (Nina Simone) - 5:18
[5] You Can Have Him (Irving Berlin) - 5:43
[6] Summertime [Instrumental] (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) - 2:49
[7] Summertime [Vocal] (George Gershwin, Ira Gershwin, DuBose Heyward) - 2:39
[8] Cotton-Eyed Joe (Traditional) - 2:51
[9] Return Home (Nina Simone) - 4:55
[10] Wild Is the Wind (Dimitri Tiomkin, Ned Washington) - 3:22
[11] Fine and Mellow (Billie Holiday, Arthur Herzog, Jr.) - 3:18

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Nina Simone - Vocals, Piano, Arrangements

Jimmy Bond - Bass
Al Tootie Heath - Drums

Bob Blake - Producer
Jack Gold - Producer
Michael Cuscuna - Re-issue Producer
Malcolm Addey - Remastering
E. Socolov - Design
Herb Snitzer - Photography
Don Ross - Liner Notes
Howard Berk - Liner Notes

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded live at The Town Hall New York City September 15, 1959, studio tracks recorded the following month.



An audience with the High Priestess of Soul.

It was said of Nina Simone that she performed "with heart at all times", and that is none more evident than on Nina Simone at Town Hall. Only her fourth album, it was recorded mostly live at the prestigious New York venue in September 1959, with three songs – The Other Woman, Cotton Eyed Joe and Wild Is the Wind – cut in a studio in the city a month later. It captures the 27-year-old at one of her early pinnacles.

The show was her New York concert debut. Simone later wrote how, after years playing clubs, that it was one of the first times that she’d played somewhere where people had arrived simply to listen to her. Recorded when she was only toying with popular music in order to fund her continued studies into classical piano, it shows her formal background, evident in her confident, on-stage mastery.

Serious-minded but never po-faced, Simone’s joy is evident by her squeals of delight at the end of several numbers; this is an artist clearly enjoying herself as much as her audience. Although only occasionally singing her own material, the authority and sincerity she brought to other’s work made their songs her own – George Gershwin’s Summertime, Dimitri Tiomkin’s Wild Is the Wind and Billie Holiday’s Fine and Mellow are here captured as if they couldn’t have been written for anyone else than Simone.

Supported by Jimmy Bond on bass and Al ‘Tootie’ Heath on drums, her grasp of the spectrum of popular music is astonishing. From traditional ballads such as Black Is the Colour of My True Love’s Hair to light and airy cabaret renditions of Exactly Like You to intense ruminations on being the wronged woman (You Can Have Him), Simone treats each piece with similar weight and respect.

The reviews for the show, as Simone later wrote, "were the best I ever had. I was a sensation. An overnight success, just like in the movies." Simone’s gravitas and strong self-belief made for an enthralling performance. Artists frequently bandy about the words "soul" and "passion" to compensate for their blatant lack of either. Few had both like Nina Simone, and …at Town Hall is one of the greatest examples of her unique style.

Daryl Easlea - 2010
BBC Review



One of Nina Simone's finest recordings, this Colpix LP features the unique singer/pianist performing classic versions of "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," "The Other Woman," and "Wild Is the Wind." With supportive work from bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Albert "Tootie" Heath, she also sounds fine on a few instrumentals. "Summertime" is performed twice, once as a vocal. From the start of her career, Nina Simone carved out her own unique niche, meshing together her classical piano technique with folk singing, civil rights protest lyrics and jazz. All of those elements are in evidence on this highly recommended set.

Scott Yanow - All Musoc Guide



Nina Simone at Town Hall is a 1959 live album by Nina Simone. It was recorded live at The Town Hall, New York, on 15 September 1959 and released as her second album for Colpix Records that same year. Some of the songs were featured in the concert but were re-recorded in a studio for the album. Information about songs on this album. "Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair" also features on the albums Wild Is the Wind (1966) and Black Gold (1970). "The Other Woman" is written by Jessie Mae Robinson and also features on the albums Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall (1963), Let It All Out (1966), and Live at Ronnie Scott's (1984). The song was covered by American singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey and is the eleventh track on her third studio album, Ultraviolence (2014). "Wild Is the Wind" also features on the album Wild Is the Wind (1966).

Wikipedia.org
 

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