In February, earlier that year, Simone's first album Little Girl Blue had been released by Bethlehem Records, after it had been lazing in production for fourteen or so months.

[3] 'An even bigger milestone' for Simone, writes Alan Light, came in September 'when she made her concert debut at New York's Town Hall,'[4] and Colpix arranged for this performance to be recorded.

The promoters for Town Hall, the venerable auditorium just off Times Square, had booked her as the headliner' on a bill with the Horace Silver and J. J. Johnson quintets.

As Cohodas continues: 'Just how different Town Hall would be struck Nina right before she went onstage, when she saw the audience sitting in orderly rows—no drinks being served, no cigarette girls selling their packs.

'[5] Kerry Acker tells of a review of the show for The New York Times, where 'critic John S. Wilson wrote that Simone "easily held her own" in the company of Silver and Johnson.

[5] However, Light goes in to a bit more detail here, stating that Simone 'had not rehearsed with, or even met, the musicians who would accompany her on the stage until the curtain rose'.