10 Things You Should Know About the Extraordinary Nina Simone

Posted on | April 19, 2010 | No Comments

There is more to Nina Simone than you could ever learn from a little list like this. She was truly one of the great artists of her time; not only an exceptional songwriter and musician, but a dedicated activist and outspoken advocate for freedom. If you already know Nina’s music, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, check her out sometime. Her genre-transcending music and keen insights are essential listening.

1. Nina was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon, on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina to Mary Kate Waymon, a housekeeper, and John D. Waymon, an ordained Methodist minister. She was the sixth of eight children.

2. The family that Mary Kate worked for, saw that Nina had extraordinary musical talents and sponsored classical piano lessons for her. Her concert debut was made at the age of twelve. Simone claimed 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.

3. Nina attended Juilliard in New York for her last year of high school, hoping to get into the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She was rejected. Nina Simone believed that she was good enough for the program, but was rejected because of the color of her skin.

4. Nina hated being pigeonholed as a jazz singer. “To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt and that’s not what I play,” Nina Simone said in one interview. “I play black classical music.”

5. In 1954, she began playing piano at the Midtown Bar and Grill in Atlantic City, where she took the name Nina Simone to avoid her mother’s religious disapproval of her playing in a bar. She went on to record over 60 albums and play concerts around the world.

6. In the 1960s, Nina Simone became an integral part of the civil rights movement and later embraced the black power movement. Nina wrote “Mississippi Goddam” after the murder of Medgar Evers, and the bombing of a Baptist church in Alabama killed four little girls.

7. Nina’s song, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” was composed in honor of her friend Lorraine Hansberry and became an anthem for the growing black power movement.

8. Nina’s ever-increasing bitterness over America’s racism eventually led to her decision to leave the United States. She moved to Europe in 1978. In 1985, she returned to the United States to record and perform, choosing to de-emphasize her political views and focus on the music. In 1991, Simone returned to Europe for good; first to the Netherlands, then to the South of France.

9. Her last public performance was July 2002, in Poland. She died April 21, 2003, in Carry-le-Rouet, France. After her death, it was revealed that she had struggled with the emotional highs and lows of bi-polar disorder since the 1960s.

10. Two days before her death, Nina was thrilled to learn that the Curtis Institute—the school that formerly denied her acceptance—had awarded her an honorary diploma.

Most of this information is taken from Nina’s biography at ninasimone.com and the Nina Simone wikipedia page.

Category: Culture, Lists, Music, Recommended Music
Tags: Music > Nina Simone

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10 Things You Should Know About the Extraordinary Nina Simone

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