Thank you for buying this record. What follows is its documentation: the
pressing identified, the matrix / runout transcribed by hand from the dead
wax, and the condition as assessed before it was listed. It is yours to keep
with the record.
— Paul, Vinyl Curator
Nina Simone
Nina Simone at Town Hall
1964 · Colpix Records SCP 409 · Stereo · US · LP · 33 1/3 RPM
Pressing details
| Label | Colpix Records |
|---|
| Catalogue number | SCP 409 |
|---|
| Year | 1964 |
|---|
| Mono / Stereo | Stereo |
|---|
| Country | US |
|---|
| Format | LP |
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| Speed | 33 1/3 RPM |
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| Genre | Jazz/Vocal - Live |
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| Producer | Bob Blake, Jack Gold |
|---|
| Musicians | Nina Simone (vocals, piano, arrangements), Jimmy Bond (bass), Al "Tootie" Heath (drums) |
|---|
Matrix / Runout
Side A: SCP-409A MONARCH MR △3027
Side B: SCP-409B2 2 MR △3006-1
Condition
- Cover
- VG+
- Vinyl
- EX+
Variant chronology
1959 - US Colpix gold label, Statue of Liberty logo, first pressing (mono CP 409 / stereo SCP 409)
1963 - US Colpix gold label repress with filmstrip logo
1964 - US Colpix blue label, Monarch pressing, filmstrip cover logo <- this copy
1966 - UK Pye mono yellow label repress
c. 2010s - reissues on colored/audiophile vinyl (Vinyl Passion, 4 Men With Beards, Naked Lunch, WaxTime)
This Pressing
1964 blue-label Colpix repress (stereo) - Monarch-pressed, later than the 1959 gold-label original.
The Album
Nina Simone at Town Hall captures her September 12, 1959 concert at New York's Town Hall, her first live album and only her second release for Colpix Records following the success of "I Loves You, Porgy." Backed only by bassist Jimmy Bond and drummer Al "Tootie" Heath, Simone ranges fluidly across folk ("Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair"), blues, torch song, and jazz standard, showcasing the genre-defying eclecticism that would define her career. Three tracks, including the instrumental and vocal takes of "Summertime" and the Afro-Cuban-tinged original "Return Home," were actually cut in the studio the following month to round out the program. The album helped cement Simone's reputation as a uniquely personal interpreter rather than a straightforward jazz or pop vocalist, blending classical piano technique with raw emotional directness. Critically, it is remembered as one of the most fully realized statements of her early Colpix period, prized for the intimacy of "Wild Is the Wind" and the loose, improvisatory swagger of "Return Home." It remains a touchstone in Simone's discography and a key document of her transition from cabaret performer to a singular voice in American song.
Tracklist
Side 1
1. Black Is the Color of My True Love's Hair
2. Exactly Like You
3. The Other Woman
4. Under the Lowest
5. You Can Have Him
Side 2
1. Summertime (Instrumental)
2. Summertime (Vocal)
3. Cotton Eyed Joe
4. Return Home
5. Wild Is the Wind
6. Fine and Mellow
The Label
The side labels on this copy are the plain blue Colpix design (two white horizontal bars, "COLPIX RECORDS" logo, "COLUMBIA PICTURES CORPORATION / NEW YORK, N.Y. / MADE IN U.S.A." address text), with no filmstrip logo printed on the label face itself, only on the jacket. This blue-label design was used intermittently across Colpix's 400/500 series catalogue in 1964, replacing the earlier gold, Statue-of-Liberty-logo labels used on the 1959 original and the 1963 filmstrip-logo gold repress. The encircled "MR" and etched triangle stamper codes in the runouts (△3027 / △3006) indicate a Monarch Record Mfg. Co. pressing consistent with that 1964 blue-label repress window, placing this copy as a mid-1960s repress rather than the 1959 first issue.
Fidelity
This stereo pressing derives from Colpix's original 1959 three-track stereo tape of the Town Hall concert; no specific mastering engineer is credited on the jacket or labels. Monarch pressings of this era are generally solid but unremarkable, and this is not a cutting collectors single out for superior sonics versus other Colpix pressings of the same period. Within the album's overall fidelity hierarchy it sits above later low-budget European reissues (WaxTime, Vinyl Passion, Naked Lunch) which forum posters describe as variable, but below nothing audiophile-grade, since no Analogue Productions, Music Matters, or Mobile Fidelity edition of this title exists.
Notes
This is the 1964 Colpix blue-label stereo repress of SCP 409, not the 1959 gold-label/Statue-of-Liberty-logo original. The runouts (SCP-409A MONARCH MR △3027; SCP-409B2 MR △3006) carry the encircled-MR Monarch Record Mfg. Co. stamps associated with this blue-label pressing window. Cover carries the same filmstrip Colpix logo and jacket art used across the album's early pressings, but the label design itself dates this copy to the mid-1960s repress rather than first issue.
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