One september day nina simone biography

Nina Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger and civil rightsactivist. Simone did not like people to classify her music, or say what genre it fell into, but people often call her a jazz musician. She was often called "The High Priestess of Soul".

Early life

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina in 1933. She was one of eight children in a poor family. She began playing the piano when she was age of three. The first song she learned was "God be With You, Till we Meet Again" and she played at her local church. Her first concert was a classical piano recital, when she was twelve. Her parents sat on the front row to watch her, but were made to move to the back of the hall to make way for white people. Simone said she would not play until her parents were moved back to the front. She remembered this event later when she got involved with the civil rights movement.

Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon was a strict Methodistminister. Her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman, and sometimes a barber, who was often ill. Mrs. Waymon worked as a maid and her employer, hearing of Simone's talent, gave them money for piano lessons. After that, a local fund was made to help in carrying on her education. When she was 17, Sim

American singer-songwriter (1933–2003)

Musical artist

Nina Simone (NEE-nə sim-OHN; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and pop. Her piano playing was strongly influenced by baroque and classical music, especially Johann Sebastian Bach, and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.

The sixth of eight children born into a poor family in North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. With the help of a few supporters in her hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. She then applied for a scholarship to study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where, despite a well received audition, she was denied admission, which she attributed to racism. In 2003, just days before her death, the institute awarded her an honorary degree.

Early in her career, to make a living, Simone played piano at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She changed her name to "Nina Simone" to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music" or so-called "cocktail piano". She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, which effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist. She went on to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making her debut with Little Girl Blue. She released her first and biggest hit single in the United States in 1959 with "I Loves You, Porgy", which peaked inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Simone also became known for her work in the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s,^[13]

The giant shadow of influence she cast on singers in the last quarter of the 20th century and the first 20 years of the 21st belie the fact that Nina Simone was one of the most underrated and underappreciated singers of her time.

She never got the attention her prime musical influence, Billie Holiday, received. Nor did she enjoy the accolades garnered by many of those calling her an influence in their music.

Artists such as Aretha Franklin, who re-recorded one of her civil rights anthems: “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” thus cementing a musical bond between the “Queen of Soul” and the “High Priestess of Soul.”

Artists such as John Legend, who paid tribute to her during a performance at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival. There was Patti LaBelle, who credited Simone with making her more assertive in her career. She joined Simone, Elton John, James Taylor and Wynonna Judd at Sting’s 12th Annual Rainforest Foundation Concert in 2000. LaBelle would later sing at Simone’s 2003 memorial service in Harlem.

Artists such as John Lennon, who used Simone as an inspiration for The Beatles’ “Michelle” after Paul McCartney got stuck writing a portion of the song. Lennon told him he had been listening to Simone “who did something like ‘I love you!’ in one of her songs and that made me think of the middle eight for ‘Michelle.’”

Artists such as the late Jeff Buckley, who said on “The Jeff Buckley FAQ” that the only version of the popular song “Lilac Wine” he heard was Simone’s. “That’s the only one that matters. There’s one by Eartha Kitt. There’s one by Elkie Brooks, which I’ve never ever heard. There’s another one. But Nina does it best. That’s the end all of it. That’s the be-all, end-all version. She’s the king.”

Then, there was Mary J. Blige, who told Rolling Stone that “I heard her sing a song in French—I didn’t even know what she was saying, and I started crying. Then she goes from that to ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ singing it like a church record, b

A classically trained piano prodigy, Nina Simone blended musical genres to become one of the most respected musicians of the 20 century. Her shift to music that expressly demanded equality for Black Americans made her a hero to some—and an enemy to others. Despite this, Simone remained steadfast in her beliefs, leaving behind a lasting musical and social legacy.

Simone experienced the sting of racism at an early age

Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in February 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children. Her mother was a Methodist minister and part-time domestic worker, and her father, himself an entertainer, supported his family working a number of jobs. Exposed to the music of her mother’s church while a toddler, Simone was accompanying her mother’s sermons by the age of 3. At the age of 5, she began taking piano lessons—paid for by one of her mother’s white employers—with a local teacher who introduced her to classical music.

Simone would later write in her autobiography that her family rarely discussed race at home and that she had grown up in a relatively integrated town. But she was not immune to the degradation and cruelty of the Jim Crow South. One incident occurred during a recital when she was 11. When her parents were forced to give up their front row seats to a white couple, Eunice stood her ground — refusing to play until her parents were returned to the front row. The pain of that moment was a revelation of sorts, and she later wrote that she felt “as if I had been flayed, and every slight, real or imagined, cut me raw. But, the skin grew back a little tougher, a little less innocent, and a little more Black.”

She shied away from politics early in her career

After graduating from high school, Simone spent a summer at New York’s Juilliard School, preparing for her ultimate goal, admission to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music. She was so certain of acce