The High Priestess of Soul Nina Simone
November 18, 2008 by admin
Filed under Featured Artists
A girl named Eunice Kathleen Waymon, who was born in the year 1993, was nominated for Grammy Awards for at least fifteen times. She became renowned with her stage name Nina Simone as she had her genres in gospel, folk, soul, R&B, jazz, pop and blues. Nina Simone had worked for the labels namely, RCA Victor, Bethlehem, Legacy Recordings, Philips and Colpix. She was also entitled as “High Priestess of Soul” by her admirers. Nina Simone had some immense power in her songs that helped in making a long lasting impact on the people. Moreover she used to take part actively in the civil rights.
Nina Simone was born in North California and in total they were eight siblings. She used to play piano at the local church and at the age of ten she gave a debut concert. The incident that forced Nina Simone to become a civil right activist was that during this concert her parents were sitting in the first row, but were shifted to the last row to give the front seats to the white people. This strike Nina’s mind and she used to work as an activist as well. Nina Simon’s father was a handyman and her mother was a Methodist Minister and also worked as a maid.
The place where Nina Simone’s mother was working, the employer used to give her funds so that Nina Simone could attend the piano class. After some time, Nina Simone shifted to Philadelphia where she used to train students to learn piano, to make out some money for her further studies. She learned classical music from Julliard School of music in New York City. She took the help of a private tutor to clear an interview, but was rejected because of some reasons. Still Nina Simpson used to believe that she was rejected due to the color of her skin and this increased her hatred towards this racial discrimination.
Nina Simone to fund her study started to play piano at a bar, but the owner asked her to sing and play simultaneously in order to obtain the job. This was the reason she changed her name from Eunice Kathleen Waymon to Nina Simone, as she did not wanted her mother to know that she used to perform on The Devil’s Music. She made some fans in the bar and after performing in the bars for a long time; she recorded “I loves you Porgy”, which became a Billboard forty hit. After that she signed with Bethlehem Records and launched her debut album “Little Girl Blue”, which was written and produced by Nina Simone herself. The album comprised of some other hit tracks also namely, “Mood Indigo”, “Don’t Smoke in Bed”, “He Needs Me”, “Little Girl Blue”, “Love Me or Leave Me”, “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, “Good Bait”, “Plain Gold Ring”, “You’ll Never Walk Alone” and lot more.
Not only this, Nina Simone launched many other albums like Little Girl Blue, Nina Simone and Her Friends, The Amazing Nina Simone, Nina Simone at Newport, Nina at the Village Gate, Nina’s Choice, I Put a Spell on You, Nina Simone with Strings, Wild Is the Wind, High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, Nina Simone and Piano, To Love Somebody, Here Comes the Sun, The Rising Sun Collection, Backlash (Nina Simone album), The Very Best of Nina Simone and many other, which were a chart buster.
Nina Simone died in the year 2003 because she was suffering from melancholy and bipola disorder, but is still alive in millions of hearts.
TJ Grooves
Rare Soul Grooves & Soul Music TV
One of my all time favourite songs is Nina Simone’s version of A Brown-Eyed Handsome Man with the classic line “Theres been a whole lot of good women shedding tears over A Brown Eyed Handsome Man” - too true! And me too!
I know that one! Something about Venus de Milo losing her arms in a wrestling match? Yes, after her bluesy numbers who’d have thought Ms Simone could do something so upbeat and uplifting.
I wonder what was in her mind when she composed songs like “Mood Indigo”, “He Needs Me”, or don’t “Don’t Smoke in Bed”. No one could have the power to compose such songs. Cheers to you Nina. These songs have really made you immortal in our hearts. We will miss you.
I am a great admirer of Simone not only for her great musical repertoire but also for her zeal to raise her voice against anything that is wrong. Through her song “Mississippi Goddam” in the 1960s, she showed the courage to speak openly against racism that was common in the US. Hats off to her.
Hey allenhooper - you reckon that Nina and artists like her have paved the way for Americas acceptance of Obama? Let’s face it who hasn’t grown up to this music - whether you are black, white, or other shades of humankind. Power to em and lets hope Obama can really get it sorted.
I am surprised that Nina Simone had to struggle as a child, but thank God, she had the support of her mother and others, who helped a lot in shaping her career. We all know that she is very vehement when it comes to opposing and talking about racial discrimination.
Yup, High Priestess of Soul is charming indeed. It has the right tunes and track and you will fall in love with them. Well I know people who are not quite fond of “I Put a Spell on You”. They must be nuts. The music of The Very Best of Nina Simone is also enchanting.
The intro to My Baby Just Cares for Me is sheer genius - and its not surprising that its been used in film TV and adverts. The piano playing is so fluid its like another voice. Her mastery of that bluesy style of singing was incredible. Who could fail to feel her pain and melancholy? No surprise to hear she was bi-polar or depressive but how lucky that she exorcised it in her music - we’ll always be thankful.
Her professional name is a combination of Nina (”little one”), from an Hispanic boyfriend, and Simone from French film actress Simone Signoret.
Nina about himself: Jazz is a white term to define Black people. My music is Black classical music.
By the way, maybe you want to correct that first bit which says she was born in 1993. I think it was 1933. Did you know that she made her concert debut, a classical piano recital, at the age of ten. During her 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 refused to play until her parents were moved back, hence beginning her long standing commitment to the civil rights movement.
Nina Simone had a fascinating life with real highs and lows. She composed over 500 songs, and recorded almost 60 albums. She had a daughter (known simply as Simone) who also launched a career in music, and earlier this year saw the release of her first full-length album on High Priestess/Koch, Simone On Simone (a big band tribute to her mother produced by famed jazz musician and arranger Bob Belden).
Lauryn Hill rapped on the last Fugees-album: “While you imitating Al Capone, I be Nina Simone… She was fabulous - a protest singer; a jazz singer; a pianist; an arranger and a composer. Nina Simone is a great artist who defies easy classification - a jazz-rock-pop-folk-black musician.
Nina Simones lyrics spoke to us : “It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life - and we’re feeling good”. This is the spirit we need for the days to come - a new year and time to forget the problems of the old one.
She left America at the end of the 1960s, claiming that both the FBI and the CIA had files on her and she could no longer stand the racism, so she chose to live in France. In 1996 she was given a suspended sentence by French magistrates for firing an air-rifle at two boys playing in the swimming pool of a neighbouring villa. She claimed they were making too much noise. Her daughter Simone once said “I want to carry on the legacy. There are a lot of things that Mommy didn’t get a chance to complete because of the path she chose in regards to the Civil Rights Movement. So I want to complete that journey for her.”
John S. Wilson of the New York Times stated in 1960 that Simone “defies easy classification.” He said that her songs “grew in the classic Simone manner from a mumble and a quaver through an intense, breathy declaration, swelling to a shout that burst into gospel excitement that swept the audience into the performance.”
The High Priestess of Soul – Nina Simone!…
A girl named Eunice Kathleen Waymon, who was born in the year 1993, was nominated for Grammy Awards for at least fifteen times. She became renowned with her stage name Nina Simone as she had her genres in gospel, folk, soul, R&B, jazz, pop and blue…