Photo: Nina Simone (Facebook) (Nina was featured in the documentary “Summer of Soul” – if you haven’t seen it, do so!) Eunice Kathleen Waymon (2/21/1933 – 4/212003), known professionally as Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel and pop.
The sixth of eight children born to a poor family in Tryon, North Carolina, Simone initially aspired to be a concert pianist. . . Her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was 12. 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. She said that 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 music teacher helped establish a special fund to pay for her education. Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist her continued education. With the help of this scholarship money, she was able to attend Allen High School for Girls in Asheville, North Carolina. . . .
However, after being denied admission to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia despite a well-received audition (which she attributed to racism), she started playing 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.
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Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone
[Editor’s note: Although I’d heard her name before, I never knew much of anything about her until I saw the movie “Summer of Soul.” In it Nina appears singing and playing the piano. She easily rivaled Liberace and certainly Aretha Franklin. I truly wish I’d gotten to see her in concert.]
Photo: Nina Simone album (To Be Young, Gifted and Black) (from her Facebook page –
https://www.facebook.com/nina.simone/)
Nina Simone – She Was Fabulous!
