Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Nina Simone


Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon, better known as Dr. Nina Simone (Hon.) was born on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, NC. She began singing at her local church and showed prodigious talent as a pianist. Her public debut, a piano recital, was made at the age of ten. Her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to the back of the hall to make way for whites. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the civil rights movement. At seventeen, Simone moved Philadelphia where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She studied at Julliard, thanks to the sponsorship of benefactors, but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first African-American concert pianist. She was rejected by the Curtis Institute and believed it was because she was black.Simone turned instead to blues and jazz in Atlantic City nightclubs, taking the name Nina Simone in 1954;. She first came to public notice in 1959 with her wrenching rendition of George Gershwin's "I Loves You Porgy". Throughout the 1960s, Simone was involved in the civil rights movement and recorded a number of political songs. In 1971, Simone left the United States following disagreements with agents, record labels, and the tax authorities, citing racism as the reason. She returned in 1978 and was arrested for tax evasion (she had withheld several years of income tax as a protest against the Vietnam War). In 1995, Simone reportedly shot and wounded her neighbour's son with a pneumatic pistol after his laughing disturbed her concentration. She also fired at a record company executive whom she accused of stealing royalties. In 1993, she settled near Aix-en-Provence in the south of France where she died of cancer in 2003.

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