Coordinates | 52°27′″N18°11′″N |
---|
name | Nina Simone |
---|
background | solo_singer |
---|
birth name | Eunice Kathleen Waymon |
---|
birth date | February 21, 1933 |
---|
Birth place | Tryon, North Carolina, United States |
---|
death date | April 21, 2003 |
---|
Death place | Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France |
---|
genre | Jazz, blues, R&B;, folk, gospel |
---|
occupation | Singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, activist |
---|
years active | 1954–2003 |
---|
label | Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA Victor, CTI, Legacy Recordings |
---|
website | http://www.ninasimone.com/
}} |
---|
Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her
stage name Nina Simone (), was an
American singer, songwriter,
pianist, arranger, and
civil rights activist widely associated with
jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical
pianist while working in a broad range of styles including
classical,
jazz,
blues,
folk,
R&B;,
gospel, and
pop.
Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child. Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black. She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958. and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical. Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years.
After 20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again.
Biography
Youth (1933–1954)
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in
Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local
church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was twelve. Simone later said that during this 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 said she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front, and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the
civil rights movement.
Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a strict Methodist minister and a housemaid. Simone's father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry cleaning business, but who also suffered bouts of ill health. Mary Kate's employer, hearing of her daughter's talent, provided funds for piano lessons. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Simone's continued education. With the assistance of this scholarship money she attended high school.
After finishing high school, she had studied for an interview with the help of a private tutor to study piano further at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her race. Simone then moved to New York City, where she studied at the Juilliard School of Music.
Early success (1954–1959)
To fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in
Atlantic City, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano. In 1954 she adopted the stage name Nina Simone. "Nina" (from niña, meaning 'little girl' in
Spanish) was a
nickname a boyfriend had given to her, and "Simone" was taken from the
French actress
Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie ''
Casque d'or''. Simone's mixture of jazz,
blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small, but loyal, fan base.
In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage. After playing in small clubs, in 1958 she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from ''Porgy and Bess''), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only ''Billboard'' top 40 success in the United States, and her debut album ''Little Girl Blue'' soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone missed out on more than $1 million in royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of ''My Baby Just Cares for Me'' during the 1980s) and never benefited financially from the album, because she had sold her rights to it for $3,000.
Becoming popular (1959–1964)
After the success of ''Little Girl Blue'', Simone signed a contract with
Colpix Records, and recorded a string of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. At this point, Simone only performed
pop music to make money to continue her classical music studies, and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.
Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961; Stroud later became her manager.
Civil rights era (1964–1974)
In 1964, she changed record distributors, 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 drew upon her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on ''
Nina at the Village Gate'' in 1962). On her debut album for Philips, ''
Nina Simone In Concert'' (live recording, 1964), however, Simone for the first time openly addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "
Mississippi Goddam", her response to the murder of
Medgar Evers and the
bombing of a church in
Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, and it was
boycotted in certain southern states. "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the
Jim Crow Laws.
From then on, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, becoming a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches. Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period, rather than Martin Luther King's non-violent approach, and she hoped that African Americans could, by armed combat, form a separate state. Nevertheless, she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.
She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", a song about the lynching of black men in the South, on ''Pastel Blues'' (1965). She also sang the W. Cuney poem "Images" on ''Let It All Out'' (1966), about the absence of pride she saw among African-American women. Simone wrote "Four Women", a song about four different stereotypes of African-American women, and included the recording on her 1966 album ''Wild Is the Wind''.
Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 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 album ''Nuff Said'' (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor, directly after the news of King's death had reached them. In the summer of 1969 she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park.
Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play ''To Be Young, Gifted, and Black'' into a civil rights song. Hansberry had been a personal friend whom Simone credited with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album ''Black Gold'' (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album ''Young, Gifted and Black'') and by Donny Hathaway.
Later life (1974–2003)
Simone left the United States in September 1970, flying to
Barbados and expecting Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of a desire for a
divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income.
When Simone returned to the United States she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War), causing her to return to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution. Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and she had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow. A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France during 1992.
She recorded her last album for RCA, ''It Is Finished'', during 1974. Simone did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album ''Baltimore'', which, while not a commercial success, did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output. 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. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where she recorded the album ''Live at Ronnie Scott's'' in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences sometimes by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the United Kingdom. This led to a re-release of the recording, which stormed to number 4 on the UK's ''NME'' singles chart, giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, ''I Put a Spell on You'', was published in 1992. She recorded her last album, ''A Single Woman'', in 1993.
In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône on April 21, 2003. (In addition, Simone received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the late 1980s). 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 "You were the greatest and I love you". Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, an actress and singer, who took the stage name Simone, and has appeared on Broadway in ''Aida''.
Musical style
Simone standards
Throughout her career, Simone assembled a collection of songs that would become standards in her repertoire. These songs were self-written tunes, tributes to works by others with a new arrangement by Simone, or songs written especially for Simone. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of
George Gershwin's "
I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart. During that same period Simone recorded "
My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, when it was featured in a
Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial. A
music video was created by
Aardman Studios for the commercial.
!!DON'T put detailed cover/sample/soundtrack use of songs here, only the very basics. Put that sort of information on the ARTICLE ABOUT THE SONG OR ALBUM!!
Well known songs from her Philips albums include "
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on ''
Broadway-Blues-Ballads'' (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (a rendition of a
Jacques Brel song) and "
Feeling Good" on
''I Put A Spell On You'' (1965), "
Lilac Wine" and "
Wild Is the Wind" on ''
Wild is the Wind'' (1966).
Especially the songs "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Feeling Good", and "
Sinnerman" (''
Pastel Blues'', 1965) have great popularity today in terms of
cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by
The Animals), sample usage, and its use on soundtracks for various movies, TV-series, and video games. "Sinnerman", in particular, has been featured in the TV series ''
Scrubs'', ''
Person of Interest'', and ''
Sherlock'', and on movies such as ''
The Thomas Crown Affair'', ''
Miami Vice'', and ''
Inland Empire'', and sampled by artists such as
Talib Kweli and
Timbaland. The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by
Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from
Common's 2007 album ''
Finding Forever'', and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on
Lil Wayne's 2008 album ''
Tha Carter III''. The song "
See-Line Woman" was sampled by
Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album ''
808s and Heartbreak''.
Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album tracks that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical ''Hair'' from the album '''Nuff Said!'' (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 4 on the UK pop charts and introducing her to a younger audience. In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, the Bee Gees' rendition of "To Love Somebody" also reached the UK top 10 in 1969. "House of the Rising Sun" was featured on ''Nina Simone Sings The Blues'' in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on ''Nina At The Village Gate'' (1962), predating the versions by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan. It was later covered by The Animals, for whom it became a signature hit.
Performing style
Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul". She was a piano player, singer, and performer, "separately and simultaneously".
On stage, Simone moved from
gospel to blues, jazz, and
folk, to numbers with European classical styling, and
Bach-style fugal
counterpoint. 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".
Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by
percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and
guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.
Simone had a reputation in the music industry for her volatility. In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration. She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties. According to a biographer, Simone took medication for a condition from the mid-1960s on. 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 in 2004 after her death.
Legacy and influence
Music
Musicians who have cited Simone as important for their own musical upbringing include
Antony and the Johnsons,
Nick Cave,
Van Morrison,
Christina Aguilera,
Elkie Brooks,
Talib Kweli,
Mos Def,
Kanye West,
Lena Horne,
John Legend,
Elizabeth Fraser,
Cat Stevens,
Anna Calvi,
Peter Gabriel,
Maynard James Keenan,
Cedric Bixler-Zavala,
Mary J. Blige,
Michael Gira,
Angela McCluskey,
Lauryn Hill,
Patrice Babatunde,
Alicia Keys,
Ian MacKaye,
Kerry Brothers, Jr. "Krucial",
Amanda Palmer,
Steve Adey and
Jeff Buckley.
John Lennon cited Simone's version of ''"I Put a Spell on You"'' as a source of inspiration for the
Beatles song ''"
Michelle"''.
Musicians who have covered her work (or her specific renditions of songs) include
Black Rock Coalition Orchestra,
J.Viewz,
Carola,
Aretha Franklin,
Janis Joplin,
Marilyn Manson,
Donny Hathaway,
David Bowie, Elkie Brooks,
Roberta Flack, Jeff Buckley,
Kimbra,
The Animals, Nick Cave,
Shivaree (band),
Ambrosia Parsley,
Muse,
Cat Power,
Katie Melua,
Timbaland,
Feist,
Shara Worden,
Common,
Lil Wayne, and
Michael Bublé. Simone's music has been featured in
soundtracks of various motion pictures and
video games, including but not limited to, ''
The Big Lebowski'' (1998), ''
Point of No Return'' (AKA ''The Assassin'', 1993), ''
Notting Hill'' (1999), ''
Any Given Sunday'' (1999), ''
The Thomas Crown Affair'' (1999), ''
Six Feet Under'' (2001), ''
The Dancer Upstairs (film)'' (2002), ''
Before Sunset'' (2004), ''
Cellular'' (2004), ''
Inland Empire'' (2006), ''
Sex and the City'' (2008), ''
The World Unseen'' (2008), ''
Revolutionary Road'' (2008), ''
Watchmen'' (2009), ''
The Saboteur'' (2009), ''
Repo Men'' (2010). Frequently her music is used in
remixes,
commercials, and TV series including
Feelin' Good featured prominently in the Season Four Promo of
Six Feet Under, 2004.
Film
The documentary ''Nina Simone: La Legende'' (''The Legend'') was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers, based on her autobiography ''I Put A Spell On You''. It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Simone then living in the
Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from ''The Legend'' was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply, ''Nina''.
Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and it is screened annually in New York City at an event called, "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976,", which is curated by Tom Blunt.
Plans for a Nina Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography ''I Put A Spell On You'' (1992) and to 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 play the lead role. Release of the movie is scheduled for 2012.
Her song "Sinnerman" was used in the 1999 film "The Thomas Crown Affair" as well as the award winning documentary "Sharkwater" by Rob Stewart in 2007.
Her song "I Got It Bad & That Ain't Good" was used in the 1998 film "The Big Lebowski"
Her music was used in the S4C show, "Alys", in 2010.
A song sung by Nina Simone on her 1970 live album, ''Black Gold'', is used in the film ''The Dancer Upstairs''.
In the film ''Point of No Return'', the protagonist choses "Nina" as her codename in honor of Simone, her mother's favorite musical artist as well as her own. Simone's music features prominently in the film.
The final scene of the film Before Sunset involves the protagonists discussing and playing a Nina Simone CD, with one of them singing along with "Just in Time" while imitating the performer's stage moves.
Honors
On
Human Kindness Day 1974 in
Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Nina Simone.
Simone received two
honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the
University of Massachusetts and
Malcolm X College. She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her. Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the
Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.
In 2010, Tryon, NC erected a statue in her honor along Trade street.
Discography
References
Bibliography
External links
Main sites
Nina Simone discography at iMusic.am
Nina Simone in the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians
Nina Simone at Legacy Recordings
The Nina Simone Database – comprehensive Nina Simone website
L'hommage: Nina Simone – tribute and archival site
Reviews and other sites
Nina Simone at The Music Box – a collection of reviews
Eunice Waymon-Nina Simone Memorial Project North Carolina-based scholarship, statue & music festival
Nina Simone Biography at About.com
Obituary from ''The Daily Telegraph''
Nina Simone: The "Princess Noire" - audio report by ''NPR''
Category:1933 births
Category:2003 deaths
Category:American Methodists
Category:African American female activists
Category:African American female singer-songwriters
Category:African Americans' rights activists
Category:American expatriates in France
Category:American jazz pianists
Category:American jazz singers
Category:American rhythm and blues singer-songwriters
Category:American soul musicians
Category:Cancer deaths in France
Category:Charly Records artists
Category:Deaths from breast cancer
Category:Jazz songwriters
Category:Juilliard School alumni
Category:Musicians from North Carolina
Category:People from Polk County, North Carolina
Category:People from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Category:People with bipolar disorder
Category:Soul-jazz musicians
Category:Torch singers
Category:Female jazz musicians
ar:نينا سيمون
be:Ніна Сімон
bg:Нина Симон
ca:Nina Simone
cs:Nina Simone
cy:Nina Simone
da:Nina Simone
de:Nina Simone
el:Νίνα Σιμόν
es:Nina Simone
eo:Nina Simone
fa:نینا سیمون
fr:Nina Simone
gl:Nina Simone
hr:Nina Simone
io:Nina Simone
id:Nina Simone
it:Nina Simone
he:נינה סימון
ka:ნინა სიმონე
lt:Nina Simone
hu:Nina Simone
ms:Nina Simone
nl:Nina Simone
ja:ニーナ・シモン
no:Nina Simone
pl:Nina Simone
pt:Nina Simone
ro:Nina Simone
ru:Нина Симон
scn:Nina Simone
simple:Nina Simone
sk:Nina Simone
sr:Нина Симон
fi:Nina Simone
sv:Nina Simone
tl:Nina Simone
th:นิน่า ซิโมน
tr:Nina Simone
uk:Ніна Сімон
ur:نیناسیمون
yo:Nina Simone
zh:妮娜·西蒙