Nina Simone was an American singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist.
Simone started playing piano by ear when she was 3 years old. She played piano in her mother’s church and soon began to study classical music with an Englishwoman called Muriel Mazzanovich. She developed a love of Bach, Chopin, Brahms, Beethoven and Schubert. Her community raised money for her to study at Julliard in New York City. Despite her working as an accompanist and teaching piano she ran out of money before she could complete her studies. She then applied to the Curtis Institute or Music in Philadelphia but was denied admission. Simone maintained that she was rejected due to her race.
Simone continued to teach piano and in 1954 she auditioned to sing at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She had turned away from classical music and was now transforming popular tunes of the day into a unique synthesis of jazz, blues, and classical music. Her rich, deep singing voice and her incredible piano ability attracted club goers from up and down the East Coast. She adopted the name ‘Nina Simone’ to hide the fact that she was ‘working in the fires of hell’ according to her mother’s beliefs.
Simone recorded her first album when she was 24 entitled “Little Girl Blue”. In the same recording session she cut “My Baby Just Cares For Me,” previously recorded by Nate King Cole, Count Basie, and Woody Herman. The song was used in a Chanel perfume commercial in Europe in the 1980’s but Simone only gained fame from it, she never saw a penny of royalties having sold her rights to the recording for $3,000.
By the 1960’s Simone became involved in the Civil Rights Movement, writing “Mississipi Goddam” in response to the 1963 assassination of Medgar Evers and the Birmingham church bombing that killed four young African-American girls. The single was boycotted in many Southern states. Simone spoke at many civil rights meetings, like the Selma to Montgomery marches. Unlike Martin Luther King’s non-violent approach Simone believed that they should use armed combat to create a separate state for African-Americans. She recorded “Why (The King of Love Is Dead)” in response to the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.
Simone struggled with her mental health, finances (a warrant had to be issued for her arrest because of unpaid taxes) and her abusive husband/manager Andrew Stroud whom she eventually fled from. Tired of both her life with her husband and the racial politics of the U.S. Simone moved to several different countries including Liberia, Switzerland, England, Barbados and France.
In the 1980’s her song “My Baby Just Cares For Me” revived her career and she toured periodically to support herself. By this point she was divorced and this inspired the title of her final album “A Single Woman.” She eventually settled in Carry-le-Rout, Bouches-du-Rhone where she lived until her death.
Simone was a prolific recording artist, with over 40 albums in her discography. She was a highly influential musician and inspired a great many others including, but not limited to: Aretha Franklin; Joni Mitchell; Elton John; David Bowie; Jeff Buckley; Nick Cave; Kanye West; Ian MacKaye and Lykke Li.