Written by De’riona Sailes
Nina Simone born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21,
1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger,
and civil rights activist who worked in a broad range of musical styles
including classical ,jazz, blues , folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.
Born in
North Carolina, the sixth child of a preacher, Simone aspired to be a concert
pianist.[1] With the help of the few supporters in her hometown of Tryon, North
Carolina, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York.
Waymon then
applied for a scholarship to study at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music
in Philadelphia, where she was denied despite a well-received audition.[3]
Simone became fully convinced this rejection had been entirely due to her race,
a statement that has been a matter of controversy. Years later, two days before
her death, the Curtis Institute of Music bestowed an honorary degree on Simone.
She was one of the most extraordinary artists of the
twentieth century, an icon of American music. She was the consummate musical
storyteller, a griot as she would come to learn, who used her remarkable talent
to create a legacy of liberation, empowerment, passion, and love through a
magnificent body of works. She earned the moniker ‘High Priestess of Soul’ for
she could weave a spell so seductive and hypnotic that the listener lost track
of time and space as they became absorbed in the moment. She was who the world
would come to know as Nina Simone.
When Nina Simone died on April 21, 2003, she left a
timeless treasure trove of musical magic spanning over four decades from her
first hit, the 1959 Top 10 classic “I Loves You Porgy,” to “A
Single Woman,”
the title cut from her one and only 1993 Elektra album. While thirty-three
years separate those recordings, the element of honest emotion is the glue that
binds the two together – it is that approach to every piece of work that became
Nina’s uncompromising musical trademark.
By the end of her life, Nina was enjoying an
unprecedented degree of recognition. Her music was enjoyed by the masses due to
the CD revolution, discovery on the Internet, and exposure through movies and
television. Nina had sold over one million CDs in the last decade of her life,
making her a global catalog best-seller.
~WWW.nina.simone.com
