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Nina Simone

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Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known under her stage name Nina Simone (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is generally classified as a jazz musician. She preferred the term "Black Classical Music" herself, a term that seems more appropriate since Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist. Her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles besides her classical basis, such as jazz, soul, folk, R&B, cabaret, gospel, and pop music. Her vocal style (with a rich alto vocal range[1]) is characterized by intense passion, breathiness, and tremolo. Simone paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness or tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, worsened by a bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-sixties, but was kept secret until 2004.[2]

Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Songs she is best known for include "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I Put a Spell On You", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Strange Fruit", and "Ain't got no-I got life". The "High Priestess's" music and message made a strong and lasting impact on African-American culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists citing her as an important influence (among them Alicia Keys, Jeff Buckley and Lauren Hill), as well as the extensive use of her music on soundtracks and in remixes.

Biography

Youth (1933–1954)

Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, one of eight children. She began playing piano at her local church and showed prodigious talent on this instrument. Her concert debut, a classical piano recital, was made at the age of ten. During her performance, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. Simone refused to play until her parents were moved back.[3][4] This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.

Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon (who lived into her late 90s) was a strict Methodist minister; her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman and sometime barber who suffered bouts of ill-health. Mrs. Waymon worked as a maid and her employer, hearing of Nina's talent, provided funds for piano lessons.[5] Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Eunice's continued education. At seventeen, Simone moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she taught piano and accompanied singers to fund her own studying as a classical music pianist at New York City's Juilliard School of Music. With the help of a private tutor she studied for an interview to further study piano at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was directly related to her being black, as well as being a woman. It further fueled her hatred of the widespread and institutionalized racism present in the U.S. during the period. It seemed that her dream to become the first African-American classical pianist would not be fulfilled.

Early success (1954–1959)

Cover of Simone's debut album Little Girl Blue (1958), also known as Jazz as Played in an Exclusive Side Street Club

Simone played at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City to fund her study. The owner said that she would have to sing as well as play the piano in order to get the job. She took on the stagename "Nina Simone" in 1954 because she did not want her mother to know that she was playing "the devil's music". "Nina" (meaning "little girl" in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her and "Simone" was after the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or.[6] Simone played and sang a mixture of jazz, blues and classical music at the bar, and by doing so she created a small but loyal fan base.[7]

After playing in small clubs she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess) in 1958, which was learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 hit in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone would never benefit financially from the album, because she sold the rights for 3000 dollars. It meant that she missed out on more than 1 million dollars of royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" in the 1980s). After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with the bigger label Colpix Records, followed by a string of studio and live albums (Simone, 1992; Brun-Lambert, 2006). Colpix relinquished all creative control, including the choice of material that would be recorded, to Nina in exchange for her signing with them. Simone, who at this point only performed pop music to make money to continue her classical music studies, was bold with her demand for control over her music because she was indifferent about having a recording contract. She would keep this attitude towards the record industry for most of her career.

Nina Simone in concert (1982)

Performing live

Simone's regal bearing and commanding stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul". Her live performances were regarded not as mere concerts, but as happenings. In a single concert she could be a singer, pianist, dancer, actress, activist, as well as both therapist and patient all simultaneously. On stage Simone's versatility became truly evident, as she moved from gospel to blues, jazz and folk, to numbers infused with European classical styling, and counterpoint fugues. She incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element. Simone compared it to "mass hypnosis. I use it all the time"[8] Many recordings exist of her concerts, expressing fragments of her on-stage power, wit, sensuality and occasional menace towards her audience. Her voiceThroughout most of her live and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Flemming and guitarist and musical director Al Shackman.

Civil rights era (1964–1974)

Simone was made aware of the severity of racial prejudice in America by her friends Langston Hughes, James Baldwin and Lorraine Hansberry (author of the play Raisin in the Sun). In 1964, she changed record labels, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that hinted to her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate in 1962). But on her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone In Concert (live recording, 1964), Simone for the first time openly addresses the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam". It was her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four black children. The song was released as a single, being boycotted in certain southern states.[9] With "Old Jim Crow" on the same album she reacts to the Jim Crow Laws.

From then onwards, the civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, where it had already become a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many Civil Rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches. She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" on Pastel Blues (1965), which is a statement on the lynching of black men in the South, and sang the W.Cuney poem "Images" on Let It All Out (1966), talking about the absence of pride in the African-American woman. Simone wrote the song "Four Women" and sings it on Wild Is the Wind (1966). It is about four different stereotypes of African-American women.

Simone again moved from Philips to RCA Victor in 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967) she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The last song illustrates how white children would get indoctrinated with racism at an early age. The album Nuff Said (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7th 1968, three days after the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player directly after the news of Dr. King's death had reached them.

Together with Langston Hughes, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberrys unfinished play "To Be Young, Gifted and Black" into a civil rights song. She performed it live on Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and the song became the official "National Anthem of Black America" and has been covered by Aretha Franklin (on 1972s Young, Gifted and Black) and Donny Hathaway.[10]

Being 'difficult'

Simone had a reputation in the music industry for being volatile and sometimes difficult to deal with, a characterization with which she strenuously took issue. In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbour's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughing disturbed her concentration.[11] She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties.[12] It is now recognised that this 'difficulty' was not just the result of an overly-perfectionist rigor, but her raging outbursts and diva-like extremes were actually the result of a psycho-medical condition, most probably a bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. Simone reluctantly took medication for her condition from the mid sixties on.[13] All this was only known to a small group of intimates, and kept out of public view for many years, until the biography Break Down And Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan revealed this secret in 2004.

Later life (1978–2003)

Cover of Simone's last album A Single Woman (1993)

Simone left the United States in September 1970. The continuous performances and decline of the Civil Rights movement had exhausted her. She flew to Barbados, expecting her husband and manager, Andrew Stroud, to contact her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance (and the fact that she left behind her wedding ring) as a cue for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was also in charge of Simone's income. This meant that after their separation Simone had no knowledge about how her business was run, and what she was actually worth. Upon returning to the United States she also learned that there were serious problems with the tax authorities, causing her to go back to Barbados again.[14] Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time, and had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.[15][16] A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, convinced her to come to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France in 1992. Simone's divorce from her husband and manager can be seen as the end of her most successful years in the American music business, and the beginning of her (partially self-imposed) exile and estrangement from the world for the next two decades

After her last album for RCA Records, It Is Finished (1974), it was not until 1978 that Simone was convinced by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor to record another album, Baltimore. While not a commercial succes, the album did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. Her voice had not lost its power over the years, but developed an additional warmth and a vivacious maturity. Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder On My Wings on a French label. It is one of her most personal albums, with nearly all of the (autobiographical) songs written by herself. In the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where the album Live At Ronnie Scott's was recorded in 1984. Though her on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences by recounting sometimes humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and soliciting requests. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published in 1992 and recorded her last album A Single Woman in 1993.

In 1993 Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France. She had been ill with breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet on April 21, 2003, aged 70. Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message "We were the greatest and I love you".[17] Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter Lisa Celeste, now an actress/singer who took on the stagename Simone and has appeared on Broadway in Aida.

Honors

On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington DC more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Simone for her music and commitment to humanity.[18][19] Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities from the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm X College.[20] She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.[21] Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded with an honorary diploma by the Curtis Institute, the school that had turned her down at the start of her career.[22]

Best-known work

Simone had her first and biggest hit in America with a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy", a track from her debut album Little Girl Blue (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart.[23] In 1987, she experienced a resurgence in popularity when "My Baby Just Cares for Me" from the same album, became a hit all over Europe after it was featured in a Chanel no. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was then created by Aardman.

Well known songs from her Philips years include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" and "Feeling Good" on I Put A Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966). "Feeling Good" was used in a Sky Movies advertisement, a 24 promotional advertisement, and in the drama series Six Feet Under (a promo for the 4th season). Several cover versions were made, most notably by British rock band Muse and Michael Bublé. It was sampled in a song by Mary J Blige on her album The Breakthrough (2006). "Sinnerman" (from the 1965 album Pastel Blues) featured in the films The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Cellular (2004), and Inland Empire (2006), an episode of the TV series Homicide - "Sins of the Father," an episode of the TV series Scrubs and on the soundtrack for the video game Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. Hip-hop producer Kanye West sampled "Sinnerman" for the Talib Kweli single "Get By". Talib Kweli also recorded a hip-hop remake of Four Women, which is featured on Reflection Eternal with DJ Hi-Tek. Recently, a remixed version by Felix da Housecat was used in the soundtrack of the film Miami Vice (2006). It was also covered by 16 Horsepower.

Well known songs from her RCA-Victor years include "House of the Rising Sun" on Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967), "Ain't Got No - I Got Life", "Gin House Blues" and "Do What You Gotta Do" on Nuff Said (1968), the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" and Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" and "I Shall Be Released" on To Love Somebody (1969).

"Ain't Got No-I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair, gave Simone a new and younger audience when it became a surprise hit, reaching number 2 in the UK charts in 1968. It has since become one of her most popular songs. It has been used in a television advertising campaign in the United Kingdom for Müller Dairy and returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder in 2006.
Simone had recorded the traditional song "House of the Rising Sun" in 1961 and it featured on Nina At The Village Gate (1962), predating versions by Dave Van Ronk, and Bob Dylan. It was picked up by The Animals and became their signature hit. They repeated this with a Simone cover of "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood." Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood was also featured in the J'adore Dior commercial.

See also Civil Rights (1964-1974) in the Biography section for Simone's civil rights related songs.

Legacy

Nina Simone is often cited by artists from diverse musical fields as a source of inspiration. Musicians who have cited her as important for their own musical upbringing are among others Jeff Buckley, Lauren Hill, Alicia Keys and Mary J Blige. Musicians who have covered her work (or her specific renditions of songs) include Jeff Buckley, David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, Donny Hathaway, The Animals, Muse, Michael Bublé, Katie Melua and Feist. Simone's music has featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games. Her music is frequently used in remixes, commercials and TV series.

On soundtracks (film and videogame)

On film

The documentary Nina Simone: La Legende was made in the 90's by French filmakers.[24] It was based on her autobiography I Put A Spell On You and features live footage from different periods of Nina's career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Nina herself while she was living in the Netherlands, and on a trip to her birthplace.

Plans for a Nina Simone biographical picture were released at the end of 2005. The movie will be based on Nina Simone's autobiography I Put A Spell On You (1992) and will also focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006. TV writer Cynthia Mort (Will & Grace, Roseanne) is working on the script, and singer Mary J Blige will take on the lead role. The movie is scheduled for 2009.[25]

References in songs

Artist(s) Song Quote
Lauryn Hill (Fugees) "Ready or Not" While you're imitating Al Capone, I'll be Nina Simone, and defecatin' on your microphone.
Kanye West "Get by Remix" I'm packing weight like Nina Simone piano flow.
Talib Kweli "Get by Remix" I send a rest in peace to Nina Simone.
Talib Kweli (Reflection Eternal) "The Blast" if not, then just let it be like Nina Simone.
The Hold Steady "The Swish" My name is Neal Schon but people call me Nina Simone.
Joshua Radin "These Photographs" You're Nina Simone, when you talk on the phone.
Aloe Blacc "Whole World" And the whole world's in love with (Nina) Simone.
A Silver Mt. Zion "God Bless Our Dead Marines" Who among us will avenge Ms. Nina Simone?
Mos Def "Rock 'n Roll" You may dig on the Rolling Stones, but they could never ever rock like Nina Simone.
Marla Glen "Travel" I met a woman, Nina Simone, She taught me how to write.
DJ Fresh, MC Darrison "All That Jazz" Last night I fell asleep in my home, had a little dream of Nina Simone.
Joe Strummer and the Mescalero's "Global-a-Go Go" Nina Simone over Sierra Leone.
Damien Dempsey "Teachers" Nina Simone could make me feel so high.

Discography

Bethlehem albums (1958–1959)

Cover of Pastel Blues (1965)

Colpix albums (1959–1964)

Philips albums (1964–1967)

RCA Victor albums (1967–1974)

Cover of the autobiographical album Fodder On My Wings (1982)

The later years (1978–1993)

Additional

Quotations

  • "Jazz is a white term used to define Black people. My music is Black Classical Music."
  • "You can see colors through music... Anything human can be felt through music, which means there is no limit to the creating that can be done... it's infinite."

Notes

  1. ^ Brun-Lambert. Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres. pp. pp. 57. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  2. ^ Hampton. Break Down And Let It All Out. pp. pp. 9-13. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  3. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 26. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  4. ^ Hampton. Break Down And Let It All Out. pp. pp. 15. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  5. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 21. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  6. ^ Brun-Lambert. Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres. pp. pp. 56. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  7. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 48-52. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  8. ^ Lords, Frank (1992). Nina Simone, La Legende (documentary) (DVD). France, United Kingdom: Quantum Leap. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  9. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 90-91. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  10. ^ Lords, Frank (1992). Nina Simone, La Legende (documentary) (DVD). France, United Kingdom: Quantum Leap. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  11. ^ "BBC Obituary: Nina Simone". 2003-04-21. Retrieved 2006-12-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  12. ^ Tim Sebastian (1999-03-25). "BBC Hard Talk: Putting Music First". Retrieved 2006-12-07. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  13. ^ Hampton. Break Down And Let It All Out. pp. pp. 9-13. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 120-122. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  15. ^ Simone. I Put a Spell on You. pp. pp. 129-134. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  16. ^ Brun-Lambert. Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres. pp. pp. 231. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  17. ^ "BBCnews: Funeral held for singer Simone". 2003-04-25. Retrieved 2007-07-22. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  18. ^ Hampton. Break Down And Let It All Out. pp. pp. 85. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  19. ^ John Kelly. "Answer Man: Kindness Turned Brutality". Retrieved 2007-01-05.
  20. ^ Jody Kolodzey. "Remembering Nina Simone". Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  21. ^ Eric Hanson (2004). "A Diva's Spell" (pdf). Williams Alumni Review. Retrieved 2006-12-07. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  22. ^ "The Nina Simone Foundation". Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  23. ^ "Allmusic Guide: "I Loves You Porgy" Billboard chart position". Retrieved 2006-12-07.
  24. ^ Lords, Frank (1992). Nina Simone, La Legende (documentary) (DVD). France, United Kingdom: Quantum Leap. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  25. ^ Untitled Nina Simone Project at IMDB.com

References

  • Brun-Lambert, David. Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres (in Dutch and translated from French original). Introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud, afterword by Gerrit de Bruin. Zwolle: Sirene. ISBN 90-5831-425-1. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |origdate= (help); Unknown parameter |origmonth= ignored (help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  • Feldstein, Ruth (March 2005). ""I Don't Trust You Anymore": Nina Simone, Culture, and Black Activism in the 1960s". Journal of American History. 91 (4).
  • Hampton, Sylvia. Break Down and Let It All Out. David Nathan, introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 1-86074-552-0. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |origdate= (help)
  • Lords, Frank (1992). Nina Simone, La Legende (documentary) (DVD). France, United Kingdom: Quantum Leap. {{cite AV media}}: External link in |title= (help)
  • Simone, Nina (2003) [1992]. I Put a Spell on You. introduction by Dave Marsh (2nd edition ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80525-1. {{cite book}}: |edition= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)

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