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Nina Simone
American musician (1933–2003)
Nina Simone was an American composer, concert pianist, singer, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title the High Priestess of Soul.
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.
Rolling Stone named Simone one of the greatest singers on various lists.
awards: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, honorary doctorate
plays: piano, voice
Facts from Wikidata and Discogs, free to use.
jazzsoulbluesvocal jazzr&bsoul jazz
The Night Owl EditionExtra
1933–1954: Early life
Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in a 650-square-foot, three-room clapboard house in Tryon, North Carolina, the sixth of eight children in a respected family. Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner as well as an entertainer. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher. Simone began playing piano at the age of three or four. The first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the piano, she performed at her local church. 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...
In order to fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, New Jersey, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano, which increased her income to $90 a week. In 1954, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone". "Nina", derived from niña, was a nickname given to her by a boyfriend named Chico, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the 1952 movie Casque d'Or. Knowing her mother would not approve of her playing "the Devil's music", she used her new stage name to remain undetected. Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small but loyal fan base.
Simone's consciousness on the racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with the playwright Lorraine Hansberry. Simone stated that during her conversations with Hansberry "we never talked about men or clothes. It was always Marx, Lenin and revolution – real girls' talk." The influence of Hansberry planted the seed for the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone's repertoire. One of Nina's more hopeful activism anthems, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright's passing, acquiring the title of one of Hansberry's unpublished plays. Simone's social circles included notable black activists such as James Baldwin, Stokely...
Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "the High Priestess of Soul". She was a pianist, singer and performer, "separately, and simultaneously". As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk, and to numbers with European classical styling. Besides using Bach-style counterpoint, she called upon the particular virtuosity of the 19th-century Romantic piano repertoire—Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others. Jazz trumpeter Miles Davis spoke highly of Simone, deeply impressed by her ability to play three-part counterpoint and incorporate it into pop songs and improvisation. Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical...
American singer, songwriter, pianist, composer, arranger and civil rights activist, born 21 February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina, USA, died 21 April 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France (aged 70)
Nina was giving piano recitals after playing at her local church at an early age. Her childhood piano lessons were funded by her mother's employer and a local fund set up by her music teacher, so impressed were they by her talent.
She moved to Philadelphia aged 17, teaching piano and playing to raise the money for her studies at New York's renowned Juilliard School Of Music. To fund her family she worked in a bar in Atlantic City where she was also required to sing and built up a devoted following.
She recorded Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" which became a US Top 20 hit and transported her to a bigger stage, performing at and the .
Her repertoire went on to embrace numerous civil rights anthems, a movement for which she was a passionate and prominent supporter. She left the US in the 1970s, moving first to Barbados, and some other places, including Africa and the Netherlands, before eventually settling in France where she died from cancer in 2003.
She won a Grammy Lifet
Also known as: B. Simone, Dr. Nina Simone, H. Simone, N Simone, N. SImone
From Discogs (free to use). Their entry
Liner notes
Nina Simone, the records, oldest first
Little Girl Blue
1958 album
wanted
The Amazing Nina Simone
1959 album
Forbidden Fruit
1961 album
Nina Simone Sings Ellington
1962 album
Broadway Blues Ballads
1964 album
Starring Nina Simone with George Wallington
1964 album
Pastel Blues
1965 album
I Put a Spell on You
1965 album
wanted
Let It All Out
1965 album
Wild Is the Wind
1966 album
Nina Simone With Strings
1966 album
Nina Simone Sings the Blues
1967 album
wanted
Silk & Soul
1967 album
High Priestess of Soul
1967 album
To Love Somebody
1969 album
Nina Simone and Piano!
1969 album
Gifted & Black
1970 album
Here Comes the Sun
1971 album
wanted
Gospel According to Nina Simone
1973 album
Baltimore
1978 album
Fodder on My Wings
1982 album
Nina’s Back
1985 album
A Single Woman
1993 album
Portrait
2016 album
Records from MusicBrainz; covers from the Cover Art Archive.
I Put a Spell on You is a studio album by American singer, songwriter, arranger and pianist Nina Simone. Recorded in 1964 and 1965 in New York City, it was released by Philips Records in 1965.
It peaked at number 99 on the Billboard 200 chart and number 18 on the UK Albums Chart. The title track "I Put a Spell on You" peaked at number 23 on the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart and number 28 on the UK Singles Chart.
Critical reception
AllMusic reviewer Richie Unterberger gave the album 3 stars out of 5, calling it "One of her most pop-oriented albums, but also one of her best and most consistent." He added, "There are really fine tunes and interpretations, on which Simone gives an edge to the potentially fey pop songs, taking a sudden (but not uncharacteristic) break for a straight jazz instrumental with 'Blues on Purpose.'"
"My Baby Just Cares for Me" is a jazz standard written by Walter Donaldson with lyrics by Gus Kahn. Written for the film version of the musical comedy Whoopee! (1930), the song became a signature tune for Eddie Cantor who sang it in the movie.
A stylized version of the song by American singer and songwriter Nina Simone, recorded in 1957, was a top 10 hit in the United Kingdom after it was used in a 1987 perfume commercial and resulted in a renaissance for Simone.
Nina Simone recording
Simone recorded the song in late 1957 for her debut album, Little Girl Blue, released in February 1959. The track remained relatively obscure until 1987, when it was used in a UK television commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume. To follow up this exposure, the track was released as a single by Charly Records, entering the UK Singles Chart on October 31, 1987 (1987-10-31) and becoming, after a peak at number 5, one of Simone's biggest hits some 18 years after her previous chart entry. This single also made the top 10 in several European single charts and peaked at number one in the Dutch Top 40.
Music video
In 1987 a claymation music video was produced for "My Baby Just Cares for Me" by Aardman Animations and directed by Peter Lord. The video prominently features live action footage showing details of a piano, brushes on a snare drum, and a double bass as they play the song. The two focal characters are represented by a singing cat in a club and the cat who is in love with her.
