Product Code: | GET 2022 |
Artist: | Nina Simone |
Origin: | |
Label: | |
Format: | |
Availability: | Enquire Now |
Condition: | |
Genre: | Blues , Jazz U |
Very smart clean vinyl with a good cover and inner sleeve.
Nina Simone (/ˈniːnə sᵻˈmoʊn/; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement. Simone employed 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, Waymon aspired to be a concert pianist.[1] With the help of a few supporters in her hometown of Tryon, North Carolina, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New York.[2]
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] Waymon 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 on her an honorary degree.[3]
To make a living, Eunice Waymon changed her name to "Nina Simone". The change related to her need to disguise herself from family members, having chosen to play "the devil's music"[3] or "cocktail piano" at a nightclub in Atlantic City. She was told in the nightclub that she would have to sing to her own accompaniment, and this effectively launched her career as a jazz vocalist.[4]
Simone recorded more than forty albums, mostly between 1958, when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue, and 1974, and had a hit in the United States in 1958 with "I Loves You, Porgy".[1]
Simone's musical style fused gospel and pop with classical music, in particular Johann Sebastian Bach,[5] and accompanied expressive, jazz-like singing in her contralto voice.[6][7]