Nina Simone

Nina Simone
Simone at a concert in Morlaix, France May 1982
Background information
Birth name	Eunice Kathleen Waymon
Born	February 21, 1933(1933-02-21) Tryon, North Carolina, United States
Died	April 21, 2003(2003-04-21) (aged 70) Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France
Genres	Jazz, blues, R&B, folk, gospel
Occupations	Singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, activist
Years active	1954–2003
Labels	Bethlehem, Colpix, Philips, RCA Victor, CTI, Legacy Recordings
Website	http://www.ninasimone.com/

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sɨˈmoʊn/), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music. Simone aspired to become a classical pianist while working in a broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop.

Born the sixth child of a preacher's family in North Carolina, Simone aspired to be a concert pianist as a child.^[1] Her musical path changed direction after she was denied a scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, despite a well-received audition. Simone was later told by someone working at Curtis that she was rejected because she was black.^[2] She then began playing in a small club in Philadelphia to fund her continuing musical education to become a classical pianist and was required to sing as well. She was approached for a recording by Bethlehem Records, and her rendition of "I Loves You Porgy" became a smash hit in the United States in 1958.^[1] Over the length of her career, Simone recorded more than 40 albums, mostly between 1958 — when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue — and 1974.

Her musical style arose from a fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music, in particular with influences from her first inspiration, Johann Sebastian Bach,^[3] and accompanied with her expressive jazz-like singing in her characteristic low tenor. She injected as much of her classical background into her music as possible to give it more depth and quality, as she felt that pop music was inferior to classical.^[4] Her intuitive grasp on the audience-performer relationship was gained from a unique background of playing piano accompaniment for church revivals and sermons regularly from the early age of six years.^[5]

After 20 years of performing, she became involved in the civil rights movement and the direction of her life shifted once again.^[4] Simone's music was highly influential in the fight for equal rights in the US.^[6]

Biography

Youth (1933–1954)

Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina. The sixth of eight children in a poor family, she began playing piano at age three; the first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Meet Again". Demonstrating a talent with the instrument, she performed at her local church, but her concert debut, a classical recital, was given when she was twelve. Simone later claimed 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 make way for white people. Simone said she refused to play until her parents were moved back to the front,^[7][8] and that the incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement.

Simone's mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a strict Methodist minister and a housemaid. Simone's father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who at one time owned a dry cleaning business, but who also suffered bouts of ill health. Mary Kate's employer, hearing of her daughter's talent, provided funds for piano lessons.^[9] Subsequently, a local fund was set up to assist in Simone's continued education. With the assistance of this scholarship money she attended high school.

After finishing high school, she had studied for an interview with the help of a private tutor to study piano further at the Curtis Institute, but she was rejected. Simone believed that this rejection was related directly to her race.^[10] Simone then moved to New York City, where she studied at the Juilliard School of Music.

Early success (1954–1959)

To fund her private lessons, Simone performed at the Midtown Bar & Grill on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic City, whose owner insisted that she sing as well as play the piano. In 1954 she adopted the stage name Nina Simone. "Nina" (from niña, meaning 'little girl' in Spanish) was a nickname a boyfriend had given to her, and "Simone" was taken from the French actress Simone Signoret, whom she had seen in the movie Casque d'or.^[11] Simone's mixture of jazz, blues, and classical music in her performances at the bar earned her a small, but loyal, fan base.^[12]

In 1958, she befriended and married Don Ross, a beatnik who worked as a fairground barker, but quickly regretted their marriage.^[13] After playing in small clubs, in 1958 she recorded a rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Holiday album and performed as a favor to a friend. It became her only Billboard top 40 success in the United States, and her debut album Little Girl Blue soon followed on Bethlehem Records. Simone missed out on more than $1 million in royalties (mainly because of the successful re-release of My Baby Just Cares for Me during the 1980s) and never benefited financially from the album, because she had sold her rights to it for $3,000.^[14]

Becoming popular (1959–1964)

After the success of Little Girl Blue, Simone signed a contract with Colpix Records, and recorded a string of studio and live albums. Colpix relinquished all creative control to her, including the choice of material that would be recorded, in exchange for her signing the contract with them. At this point, Simone only performed pop music to make money to continue her classical music studies, and was indifferent about having a recording contract. She kept this attitude toward the record industry for most of her career.^[15]

Simone married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud, in 1961; Stroud later became her manager.^[16]

Civil rights era (1964–1974)

In 1964, she changed record distributors, from the American Colpix to the Dutch Philips, which also meant a change in the contents of her recordings. Simone had always included songs in her repertoire that drew upon her African-American origins (such as "Brown Baby" and "Zungo" on Nina at the Village Gate in 1962). On her debut album for Philips, Nina Simone In Concert (live recording, 1964), however, Simone for the first time openly addressed the racial inequality that was prevalent in the United States with the song "Mississippi Goddam", her response to the murder of Medgar Evers and the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama that killed four black children. The song was released as a single, and it was boycotted in certain southern states.^[17][18] "Old Jim Crow", on the same album, addressed the Jim Crow Laws.

From then on, a civil rights message was standard in Simone's recording repertoire, becoming a part of her live performances. Simone performed and spoke at many civil rights meetings, such as at the Selma to Montgomery marches.^[19] Simone advocated violent revolution during the civil rights period, rather than Martin Luther King's non-violent approach,^[20] and she hoped that African Americans could, by armed combat, form a separate state. Nevertheless, she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.^[21]

She covered Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit", a song about the lynching of black men in the South, on Pastel Blues (1965). She also sang the W. Cuney poem "Images" on Let It All Out (1966), about the absence of pride she saw among African-American women. Simone wrote "Four Women", a song about four different stereotypes of African-American women,^[17] and included the recording on her 1966 album Wild Is the Wind.

Simone moved from Philips to RCA Victor during 1967. She sang "Backlash Blues", written by her friend Langston Hughes on her first RCA album, Nina Simone Sings The Blues (1967). On Silk & Soul (1967), she recorded Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" and "Turning Point". The album Nuff Said (1968) contains live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair, April 7, 1968, three days after the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr. She dedicated the whole performance to him and sang "Why? (The King Of Love Is Dead)", a song written by her bass player, Gene Taylor, directly after the news of King's death had reached them.^[22] In the summer of 1969 she performed at the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park.

Together with Weldon Irvine, Simone turned the late Lorraine Hansberry's unfinished play To Be Young, Gifted, and Black into a civil rights song. Hansberry had been a personal friend whom Simone credited with cultivating her social and political consciousness. She performed the song live on the album Black Gold (1970). A studio recording was released as a single, and renditions of the song have been recorded by Aretha Franklin (on her 1972 album Young, Gifted and Black) and by Donny Hathaway.^[17][21]

Later life (1974–2003)

Simone left the United States in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting Stroud to communicate with her when she had to perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact that she had left behind her wedding ring, as an indication of a desire for a divorce. As her manager, Stroud was in charge of Simone's income.

When Simone returned to the United States she learned that a warrant had been issued for her arrest for unpaid taxes (as a protest against her country's involvement with the Vietnam War), causing her to return to Barbados again to evade the authorities and prosecution.^[23] Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some time and she had a lengthy affair with the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.^[24][25] A close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, then persuaded her to go to Liberia. After that she lived in Switzerland and the Netherlands, before settling in France during 1992.

She recorded her last album for RCA Records, It Is Finished, during 1974. Simone did not make another record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the recording studio by CTI Records owner Creed Taylor. The result was the album Baltimore, which, while not a commercial success, did get good reviews and marked a quiet artistic renaissance in Simone's recording output.^[26] Her choice of material retained its eclecticism, ranging from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years later Simone recorded Fodder On My Wings on a French label. During the 1980s Simone performed regularly at Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, where she recorded the album Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, in later years, Simone particularly seemed to enjoy engaging her audiences sometimes by recounting humorous anecdotes related to her career and music and by soliciting requests. In 1987, the original 1958 recording of "My Baby Just Cares For Me" was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in the United Kingdom. This led to a re-release of the recording, which stormed to number 4 on the UK's NME singles chart, giving her a brief surge in popularity in the UK. Her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, was published in 1992. She recorded her last album, A Single Woman, in 1993.

In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in Southern France. She had suffered from breast cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at her home in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône on April 21, 2003. (In addition, Simone received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the late 1980s.^[27]) Her funeral service was attended by singers Miriam Makeba and Patti Labelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actor Ossie Davis, and hundreds of others. Elton John sent a floral tribute with the message "You were the greatest and I love you".^[28] Simone's ashes were scattered in several African countries. She left behind a daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud, an actress and singer, who took the stage name Simone, and has appeared on Broadway in Aida.^[29]

Musical style

Simone standards

Throughout her career, Simone assembled a collection of songs that would become standards in her repertoire. These songs were self-written tunes, tributes to works by others with a new arrangement by Simone, or songs written especially for Simone. Her first hit song in America was her rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 in the pop singles chart and number 2 on the black singles chart.^[30] During that same period Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success years later, in 1987, when it was featured in a Chanel No. 5 perfume commercial. A music video was created by Aardman Studios for the commercial.^[31]

Well known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964), "I Put a Spell on You", "Ne Me Quitte Pas" (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song) and "Feeling Good" on I Put A Spell On You (1965), "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild is the Wind (1966).^[32] Especially the songs "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Feeling Good", and "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) have great popularity today in terms of cover versions (most notably a version of the former song by The Animals), sample usage, and its use on soundtracks for various movies, TV-series, and video games. "Sinnerman", in particular, has been featured in the TV series Scrubs and Person of Interest, on movies such as The Thomas Crown Affair, Miami Vice, and Inland Empire, and sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli and Timbaland. The song "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" was sampled by Devo Springsteen on "Misunderstood" from Common's 2007 album Finding Forever, and by little-known producers Rodnae and Mousa for the song "Don't Get It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 album Tha Carter III. The song "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s and Heartbreak.

Simone's years at RCA-Victor spawned a number of singles and album songs that were popular, particularly in Europe. In 1968, it was "Ain't Got No, I Got Life", a medley from the musical Hair from the album 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became a surprise hit for Simone, reaching number 4 on the UK pop charts and introducing her to a younger audience.^[33] In 2006, it returned to the UK Top 30 in a remixed version by Groovefinder. The following single, the Bee Gees' rendition of "To Love Somebody" also reached the UK top 10 in 1969. "House of the Rising Sun" was featured on Nina Simone Sings The Blues in 1967, but Simone had recorded the song in 1961 and it was featured on Nina At The Village Gate (1962), predating the versions by Dave Van Ronk and Bob Dylan.^[34][35] It was later covered by The Animals, for whom it became a signature hit.

Performing style

Simone's bearing and stage presence earned her the title "High Priestess of Soul".^{[citation needed]} She was a piano player, singer, and performer, "separately and simultaneously".^[16] On stage, Simone moved from gospel to blues, jazz, and folk, to numbers with European classical styling, and Bach-style fugal counterpoint. She incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the program, and often used silence as a musical element.^[36] Simone compared it to "mass hypnosis. I use it all the time".^[21] Throughout most of her life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming and guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.^[37]

Simone had a reputation in the music industry for her volatility. In 1995, she shot and wounded her neighbor's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughter disturbed her concentration.^[38] She also fired a gun at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties.^[39] According to a biographer, Simone took medication for a condition from the mid-1960s on.^[40] All this was only known to a small group of intimates, and kept out of public view for many years, until the biography Break Down And Let It All Out written by Sylvia Hampton and David Nathan revealed this in 2004 after her death.

Legacy and influence

Music

Musicians who have cited Simone as important for their own musical upbringing include Van Morrison, Christina Aguilera, Elkie Brooks, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, Kanye West, Lena Horne, John Legend, Elizabeth Fraser, Cat Stevens, Peter Gabriel, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Mary J. Blige, Michael Gira, Angela McCluskey, Lauryn Hill, Patrice Babatunde, Alicia Keys, Ian MacKaye, Kerry Brothers, Jr. "Krucial", Amanda Palmer, and Jeff Buckley.^{[17][41][42][43]} John Lennon cited Simone's version of "I Put a Spell on You" as a source of inspiration for the Beatles song "Michelle".^[43] Musicians who have covered her work (or her specific renditions of songs) include Black Rock Coalition Orchestra, J.Viewz, Carola, Aretha Franklin, Janis Joplin, Marilyn Manson, Donny Hathaway, David Bowie, Elkie Brooks, Roberta Flack, Jeff Buckley, The Animals, Shivaree (band), Ambrosia Parsley, Muse, Cat Power, Katie Melua, Timbaland, Feist, Shara Worden, Common, Lil Wayne, and Michael Bublé. Simone's music has been featured in soundtracks of various motion pictures and video games, including but not limited to, The Big Lebowski (1998), Point of No Return (AKA The Assassin, 1993), Notting Hill (1999), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), Six Feet Under (2001), The Dancer Upstairs (film) (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Sex and the City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010). Frequently her music is used in remixes, commercials, and TV series.

Film

The documentary Nina Simone: La Legende (The Legend) was made in the 1990s by French filmmakers,^[21] based on her autobiography I Put A Spell On You. It features live footage from different periods of her career, interviews with friends and family, various interviews with Simone then living in the Netherlands, and while on a trip to her birthplace. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an earlier 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled simply, Nina.^[44]

Her filmed 1976 performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival is available on video courtesy of Eagle Rock Entertainment, and it is screened annually in New York City at an event called, "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976,", which is curated by Tom Blunt.^[45]

Plans for a Nina Simone biographical film were released at the end of 2005, to be based on Simone's autobiography I Put A Spell On You (1992) and to focus on her relationship in later life with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006. TV writer Cynthia Mort (Will & Grace, Roseanne) is working on the script, and singer Mary J. Blige will play the lead role. Release of the movie is scheduled for 2012.^[46]

Her music was used in the S4C show, "Alys", in 2010.

A song sung by Nina Simone on her 1970 live album, Black Gold, is used in the film The Dancer Upstairs.

In the film Point of No Return, the protagonist choses "Nina" as her codename in honor of Simone, her mother's favorite musical artist as well as her own. Simone's music features prominently in the film.

Honors

On Human Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid tribute to Nina Simone.^[47][48] Simone received two honorary degrees in music and humanities, from the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm X College.^[49] She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.^[50] Only two days before her death, Simone was awarded an honorary degree by the Curtis Institute, the music school that had refused to admit her as a student at the beginning of her career.^[51] In 2010, Tryon, NC erected a statue in her honor along Trade street.

Discography

Year	Album	Type	Label	Billboard
1958	Little Girl Blue	Studio	Bethlehem Records
1959	Nina Simone and Her Friends	Studio
	The Amazing Nina Simone	Studio	Colpix Records
	Nina Simone at Town Hall	Live and studio
1960	Nina Simone at Newport	Live		23 (pop)
	Forbidden Fruit	Studio
1962	Nina at the Village Gate	Live
	Nina Simone Sings Ellington	Live
1963	Nina's Choice	Compilation
	Nina Simone at Carnegie Hall	Live
1964	Folksy Nina	Live
	Nina Simone in Concert	Live	Philips Records	102 (pop)
	Broadway-Blues-Ballads	Studio
1965	I Put a Spell on You	Studio		99 (pop)
	Pastel Blues	Studio		8 (black)
1966	Nina Simone with Strings	Studio (strings added)	Colpix
	Let It All Out	Live and studio	Philips	19 (black)
	Wild Is the Wind	Studio		12 (black)
1967	High Priestess of Soul	Studio		29 (black)
	Nina Simone Sings the Blues	Studio	RCA Records	29 (black)
	Silk & Soul	Studio		24 (black)
1968	Nuff Said	Live and studio		44 (black)
1969	Nina Simone and Piano	Studio
	To Love Somebody	Studio
	A Very Rare Evening	Live	PM Records
1970	Black Gold	Live	RCA Records	29 (black)
1971	Here Comes the Sun	Studio	RCA Records	190 (pop)
	Gifted & Black	Studio	Canyon Records
1972	Emergency Ward	Live and studio	RCA Records
1973	Live at Berkeley	Live	Stroud
	Gospel According to Nina Simone	Live	Stroud
1974	It Is Finished	Live	RCA Records
	Sings Billie Holiday	Live	Stroud
1978	Baltimore	Studio	CTI Records	12 (jazz)
1980	The Rising Sun Collection	Live	Enja
1982	Fodder on My Wings	Studio	Carrere
1984	Backlash	Live	StarJazz
1985	Nina's Back	Studio	VPI
1985	Live & Kickin	Live
1987	Let It Be Me	Live	Verve
	Live at Ronnie Scott's	Live	Hendring-Wadham
	The Nina Simone Collection	Compilation	Deja Vu
1993	A Single Woman	Studio	Elektra Records	3 (top jazz)
Additional releases
1975	The Great Show Live in Paris	Live	RCA?
1997	Released	Compilation	RCA Victor Europe
2003	Gold	Studio remastered	Universal/UCJ
	Anthology	Compilation (from many labels)	RCA/BMG Heritage
2004	Nina Simone's Finest Hour	Compilation	Verve/Universal
2005	The Soul of Nina Simone	Compilation + DVD	RCA DualDisc
	Nina Simone Live at Montreux 1976	DVD only	Eagle Eye Media
2006	The Very Best of Nina Simone	Compilation	Sony BMG
	Remixed and Reimagined	Remix	Legacy/SBMG	5 (contemp.jazz)
	Songs to Sing: the Best of Nina Simone	Compilation/Live Compilation	Deluxe
	Forever Young, Gifted, & Black: Songs of Freedom and Spirit	Remix	RCA
2008	To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story	Compilation	Sony Legacy
2009	The Definitive Rarities Collection - 50 Classic Cuts	Compilation	Artwork Media
?	Nina Simone Live	DVD only: Studio 1961 & '62	Kultur/Creative Arts Television

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Simone|Cleary|2003|p=1-62}
2. ^ Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians
3. ^ Simone|Cleary|2003|p=23}
4. ^ ^{a b} Simone|Cleary|2003|p=91}
5. ^ Simone|Cleary|2003|p=17-19}
6. ^ Simone|Cleary|2003|p=95}
7. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, p. 26
8. ^ Hampton 2004, p. 15
9. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, p. 21
10. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 41–43
11. ^ Brun-Lambert 2006, p. 56
12. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 48–52
13. ^ "Nina Simone". The Independent (London). 2003-04-23. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/nina-simone-730232.html. 
14. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, p. 60
15. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, p. 65
16. ^ ^{a b} "L'hommage: Nina Simone Biography". http://www.high-priestess.com/biography.html. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
17. ^ ^{a b c d} Neal, Mark Anthony (2003-06-04). "Nina Simone: She Cast a Spell — and Made a Choice". http://www.seeingblack.com/2003/x060403/nina_simone.shtml. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
18. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 90–91
19. ^ "The Nina Simone Database: Timeline". 2010. http://www.boscarol.com/ninasimone/pages/nina/chrono.php. Retrieved 2010-07-05. 
20. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003
21. ^ ^{a b c d} Lords, Frank (1992). Nina Simone, La Legende (documentary) (DVD). France, United Kingdom: Quantum Leap. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0381450/. 
22. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 114–115
23. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 120–122
24. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 129–134
25. ^ Brun-Lambert 2006, p. 231
26. ^ Sunderland, Celeste (2005-07-01). "All about Jazz: review "Fodder on My Wings" & "Baltimore"". http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=18123. Retrieved 2007-08-05. 
27. ^ Higgins, Ria (2007-06-24). "Best of Times Worst of Times Simone". The Times (London). http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article1961959.ece. Retrieved 2010-05-08. 
28. ^ "BBCnews: Funeral held for singer Simone". BBC News. 2003-04-25. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/2975871.stm. Retrieved 2007-07-22. 
29. ^ Frank, Jonathan. "Talking Broadway Seattle: Aida". http://www.talkinbroadway.com/regional/seattle/se54.html. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
30. ^ "Allmusic Guide: "I Love You Porgy" Billboard chart position". http://www.allmusic.com/album/r156358/charts-awards. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
31. ^ Boscarol, Mauro. "Nina Simone Web: My Baby Just Cares for Me". Archived from the original on November 16, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061116020336/http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/mybabyjustcaresf.html. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
32. ^ Hampton 2004, pp. 196–202
33. ^ Hampton 2004, p. 47
34. ^ Boscarol, Mauro. "Nina Simone Web: House of the Rising Sun". Archived from the original on November 13, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20061113120850/http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/where/houseoftherising.html. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
35. ^ Hampton 2004, pp. 202–214
36. ^ Nupie, Roger. "Dr. Nina Simone: Biography". http://www.jazzlinks.net/nina-simone.html. Retrieved 2010-02-21. ^{[dead link]}
37. ^ Simone & Cleary 2003, pp. 58–59
38. ^ "BBC Obituary: Nina Simone". BBC News. 2003-04-21. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/2965225.stm. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
39. ^ Sebastian, Tim (1999-03-25). "BBC Hard Talk: Putting Music First". BBC News. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/302438.stm. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
40. ^ Hampton 2004, pp. 9–13
41. ^ Vineyard, Jennifer (2005). "Mary J. Wants To Bring Nina Simone Back To Life". http://www.mtv.com/movies/news/articles/1518220/12152005/story.jhtml. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
42. ^ Fiore, Raymond. "Entertainment Weekly: Seven who influenced Alicia Keys' Life". http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,1222282__1186026,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
43. ^ ^{a b} "The Nina Simone Web: Influenced by Nina". Archived from the original on May 3, 2007. http://web.archive.org/web/20070503062957/http://www.boscarol.com/nina/html/manual/influ.html. Retrieved 2007-08-14. 
44. ^ Peter Rodis documentary, "Nina"
45. ^ Stein, Joshua David (24 March 2010). "Pressed for time: The Rise And Fall Of Nina Simone". New York Press. http://www.nypress.com/article-21034-pressed-for-time-the-rise-and-fall-of-nina-simone.html. 
46. ^ Untitled Nina Simone Project at IMDB.com
47. ^ Hampton 2004, p. 85
48. ^ Kelly, John (2005-04-25). "Answer Man: Kindness Turned Brutality". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/24/AR2005042400984.html. Retrieved 2007-01-05. 
49. ^ Kolodzey, Jody. "Remembering Nina Simone". http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/70/. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
50. ^ Hanson, Eric (2004). "A Diva's Spell" (pdf). Williams Alumni Review. Archived from the original on September 10, 2006. http://web.archive.org/web/20060910135813/http://www.williams.edu/alumni/alumnireview/fall04/Signature.pdf. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 
51. ^ "The Nina Simone Foundation". http://web.archive.org/web/20080619032445/http://www.theninasimonefoundation.org/content.php?page=biography. Retrieved 2006-12-07. 

Bibliography

• Brun-Lambert, David (October 2006) [2006] (in Dutch, translated from French original). Nina Simone, het tragische lot van een uitzonderlijke zangeres. Introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud, afterword by Gerrit de Bruin. Zwolle: Sirene. ISBN 90-5831-425-1. 
• Feldstein, Ruth (March 2005). ""I Don't Trust You Anymore": Nina Simone, Culture, and Black Activism in the 1960s". Journal of American History 91 (4). 
• Hampton, Sylvia (2004) [2004]. Break Down and Let It All Out. David Nathan, introduction by Lisa Celeste Stroud. London: Sanctuary. ISBN 1-86074-552-0. 
• Simone, Nina; Stephen Cleary (2003) [1992]. I Put a Spell on You. introduction by Dave Marsh (2nd ed.). New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80525-1. 

External links

Music portal

• Nina Simone discography – at iMusic.am
• Article on Nina Simone in the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians
• The Nina Simone Database – A comprehensive Nina Simone website
• Nina Simone – Legacy Recordings Page
• L'hommage: Nina Simone – Tribute and archival site
• Nina Simone at The Music Box – A collection of reviews
• Eunice Waymon-Nina Simone Memorial Project North Carolina-based scholarship, statue & music festival
• Nina Simone Biography at About.com
• Obituary from The Daily Telegraph

• Nina Simone: The "Princess Noire" - audio report by NPR

Persondata
Name	Simone, Nina
Alternative names	Waymon, Eunice Kathleen; High Priestess of Soul
Short description	Singer, songwriter, pianist
Date of birth	February 21, 1933
Place of birth	Tryon, North Carolina, United States
Date of death	April 21, 2003
Place of death	Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France