Review

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known by her stage name Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, arranger, pianist and civil rights activist.

Her eclectic oeuvre includes the genres of jazz, blues, rhythm and blues and soul.

Justifications

• World-renowned singer and pianist who revolutionised African-American popular music in the 1960s and influenced artists of many different musical genres.
• Fighter for the civil rights of African-Americans.

Biography

She was born on 21 February 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. The daughter of a Methodist pastor, she grew up in a family of eight siblings and played the piano from the age of four. At the age of ten, she gave her first piano concert, had her first success, and also suffered her first racist experience: during the concert, her parents were removed from the front row to accommodate white spectators.

With the financial support of her community, she took a summer course at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York and then moved to Philadelphia to study at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. She then decided to take private lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, which she paid for by working as a piano accompanist and giving lessons.

She played for a time in clubs in Atlantic City. She first used the name Nina Simone in 1954, because of her admiration for the actress Simone Signoret, and because of the nickname Nina by which a Latin boyfriend called her.

She first gained recognition in 1959 with her LP for the Bethlehem label Little Girl Blue, which included the George Gershwin song I Loves You, Porgy, which became a best-seller. She toured the United States and Europe during the 1960s and 1970s, immortalised songs such as Ain't Got No Life and I Wish I Know How It Would Feel To Be Free, and covered songs such as Ne me quitte pas and My Way.

She joined the civil rights cause, reflecting her protest in songs such as To Be Young, Gifted and Black and Four Women. In 1969, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, she emigrated in protest at the treatment of African-Americans in the United States and lived in various countries, including Barbados, Liberia, Switzerland, Belgium, the United Kingdom and France, where she settled permanently. 

In 1978 she was arrested in her native country because of her refusal to pay taxes to finance the Vietnam War.

When few remembered her, in 1987 the filmmaker Ridley Scott filmed a TV commercial for the legendary Chanel No. 5 perfume in which Simone's song My baby just cares for me, included in her first LP, was played, which became a worldwide hit and brought her back to popularity. She continued to tour and record from then until her death. She died on 21 April 2003 at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, near Marseille, in the French department of Bouches-du-Rhone.

Nina Simone performed soul, jazz, pop, blues and gospel. She conveyed pure emotion without artifice and her eclectic style drew on the best material from other composers and performers, making it her own. 

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone> (accessed 14/11/2022)

Works

Bibliography

Official website, <https://www.ninasimone.com/>, (14/11/2022).

The Nina Simone database, <http://www.boscarol.com/ninasimone/pages/nina/chrono.php>, (14/11/2022).

Cohodas, N. (2010), Princess Noire, The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone. Pantheon (Random House Group).

Hagan, J. (2010), I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free, <https://www.thebeliever.net/i-wish-i-knew-how-it-would-feel-to-be-free/> (14/11/2022).

Simone, Nina and Stephen Cleary (1991), I Put A Spell On You. The Autobiography. Ebury Press.

Didactic approach

- English: review of the verb have got, review of vocabulary related to the body. 
- Music: to get to know jazz, blues.... 
- Economics: we can talk about advertising and its impact on consumption (Chanel No. 5 perfume).

Documents