Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina's prodigious talent as a musician was evident early on when she started playing piano by ear at the age of three. Her mother, a Methodist minister, and her father, a handyman and preacher himself, couldn't ignore young Eunice's God-given gift of music. Raised in the church on the straight and narrow, her parents taught her right from wrong, to carry herself with dignity, and to work hard. She played
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piano - but didn't sing - in her mother's church, displaying remarkable talent early in her life. Able to play virtually anything by ear, she was soon studying classical music with an Englishwoman named Muriel Mazzanovich, who had moved to the small southern town. It was from these humble roots that Eunice developed a lifelong love of Johann Sebastian Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert. After graduating valedictorian of her high school class, the community raised money for a scholarship for Eunice to study at Julliard in New York City before applying to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Her family had already moved to the City Of Brotherly Love, but Eunice's hopes for a career as a pioneering African American classical pianist were dashed when the school denied her admission. To the end, she herself would claim that racism was the reason she did not attend. While her original dream was unfulfilled, Eunice ended up with an incredible worldwide career as Nina Simone.
Basic Info
Born (1933-02-21)February 21, 1933, Tryon, North Carolina, U.S. Died April 21, 2003(2003-04-21) (aged 70), Carry-le-Rouet, France Years active 1954–2003 Genres Classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, soul Instrument(s) Vocals, piano Labels Bethlehem, Colpix, Elektra, Philips, RCA Victor, CTI, Legacy, Verve
About Nina
Eunice Kathleen Waymon, known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, musical arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned a broad range of styles, including classical, jazz, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Nina referred to her music as Black Classical Music.
YOU've GOT TO LEARN - LIVE AT NEWPORT, 1966
The Newport Jazz Festival had always brought the best out of Nina Simone. On July 2, 1966, the audience was treated to the full range of her artistry—”from the opener, a breathtaking version of "You've Got To Learn" to a swinging take on "Mississippi Goddam". After a sustained standing ovation, her fans were rewarded with the show-stopping encore, "Music For Lovers". This previously unreleased recording
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makes it clear why hearing Nina Simone in concert was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
GREAT WOMEN OF SONG: NINA SIMONE
Throughout her career, Nina's music has inspired audiences of all ages, races, and nationalities. In recent years, social media savvy youth have taken a particular interest in the works of Miss Simone. From the evergreen, feel good track aptly named “Feeling Good” to the mysteriously romantic remake of “I Put A Spell On You” and so many more, Nina's music is being used in everything from major brand
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commercials to the everyday user on social networks to convey a feeling and a mood.
No fear.
She was one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker —˜High Priestess of Soul' for she could weave a spell so seductive
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and hypnotic that the listener lost track of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world would come to know as Nina Simone. When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic "I Loves You Porgy," to "A Single Woman," the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that binds the two together - it is that approach to every piece of work that became Nina's uncompromising musical trademark. By the end of her life, Nina was enjoying an unprecedented degree of recognition. Her music was enjoyed by the masses due to the CD revolution, discovery on the Internet, and exposure through movies and television. Nina had sold over one million CDs in the last decade of her life, making her a global catalog best-seller. No one website can fully explore the many nuances and flavors that made up the more than 40 original albums in the Nina Simone library. This site contains most of Nina's finest works and press mentions. However, we might not have had the chance to witness the breathtaking range of material Nina could cover if she hadn't taken the path she did.
Now you have to live in it
To survive, she began teaching music to local students. One fateful day in 1954, looking to supplement her income, Eunice auditioned to play piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The owner informed her that not only would she be hired to play but she was also required to sing . Despite her dreams and plans to become the first Black female classical pianist,
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Eunice needed the income and accepted the job. Word spread about this new pianist and singer who was dipping into the songbooks of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and the like, transforming popular tunes of the day into a unique synthesis of jazz, blues, and classical music. Her rich, deep velvet vocal tones, combined with her mastery of the keyboard, soon attracted club goers up and down the East Coast. In order to hide the fact that she was singing in bars, Eunice's mother would refer to the practice as "working in the fires of hell", overnight Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone by taking the nickname "Nina" meaning "little one" in Spanish and "Simone" after the actress Simone Signoret. At the age of twenty-four, Nina came to the attention of the record industry. After submitting a demo of songs she had recorded during a performance in New Hope, Pennsylvania, she was signed by Syd Nathan, owner of the Ohio-based King Records (home to James Brown), to his Jazz imprint, Bethlehem Records. The boisterous Nathan had insisted on choosing songs for her debut set, but eventually relented and allowed Nina to delve in the repertoire she had been performing at clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. One of Nina's stated musical influences was Billie Holiday and her inspired reading of "Porgy" (from "Porgy & Bess") heralded the arrival of a new talent on the national scene. At the same mammoth 13 hour session in 1957, recorded in New York City, Nina also cut "My Baby Just Cares For Me," previously recorded by Nate King Cole, Count Basie, and Woody Herman. The song was used by Chanel in a perfume commercial in Europe in the 1980's and it became a massive hit for Nina, a British chart topper at #5, and thus a staple of her repertoire for the rest of her career.
Web references
Twitter
https://twitter.com/NinaSimoneMusic
Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/ninasimone
Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/ninasimone
YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/user/NinaSimoneMusic/
Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7G1GBhoKtEPnP86X2PvEYO
Store
http://www.ninasimone.com/store.store_link
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone
