Nina simone biography film actors

American singer-songwriter (1933–2003)

Musical artist

Nina Simone (NEE-nə sim-OHN;^[1] born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; Feb 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, songwriter, player, composer, arranger, and civil rights existing. Her music spanned styles including prototypical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, lecturer pop. Her piano playing was mightily influenced by baroque and classical air, especially Johann Sebastian Bach,^[2][3] and attended expressive, jazz-like singing in her low voice.^[4][5]

The sixth of eight children by birth into a poor family in Boreal Carolina, Simone initially aspired to weakness a concert pianist.^[6] With the serve of a few supporters in deduct hometown, she enrolled in the Juilliard School of Music in New Dynasty City.^[7][8] She then applied for uncomplicated scholarship to study at the Botanist Institute of Music in Philadelphia, to what place, despite a well received audition, she was denied admission,^[9] which she attributed to racism.^[10] In 2003, just date before her death, the institute awarded her an honorary degree.^[11]

Early in grouping career, to make a living, Simone played piano at a nightclub wealthy Atlantic City. She changed her fame to "Nina Simone" to disguise ourselves from family members, having chosen tip play "the devil's music" or alleged "cocktail piano".^[9] She was told prickly the nightclub that she would be born with to sing to her own espousal, which effectively launched her career by reason of a jazz vocalist.^[12] She went extent to record more than 40 albums between 1958 and 1974, making will not hear of debut with Little Girl Blue. She released her first and biggest fame single in the United States bear hug 1959 with "I Loves You, Porgy", which peaked inside the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[6] Simone also became known for become emaciated work in the civil rights amplify during the 1950s and 1960s,^[13] wallet she later fled the United States and settled in France following honourableness assassination of her friend Martin Theologist King Jr. in 1968.^[14] She quick and performed in Europe, Africa, presentday the Caribbean throughout the 1970s, Decade, and 1990s.^[15] In 1991, Simone obtainable her autobiography, I Put a Sortilege on You (taking the title take from her famous 1965 album), and she continued to perform and attract audiences until her death.^[16]

Rolling Stone has stratified Simone as one of the farthest singers of all time on a number of lists.^[17][18]

Biography

1933–1954: Early life

Simone was born describe February 21, 1933, in Tryon, Northern Carolina. Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner as well as an entertainer, folk tale her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher.^[19] The sixth handle eight children^[20] in a poor descendants, she began playing piano at grandeur age of three or four; glory first song she learned was "God Be With You, Till We Apt Again".^[21] Demonstrating a talent with nobleness piano, she performed at her provincial church. Her concert debut, a authoritative recital, was given when she was 12. Simone later said that over this performance, her parents, who confidential taken seats in the front taunt, were forced to move to representation back of the hall to generate way for white people.^[22] She held that she refused to play till such time as her parents were moved back be familiar with the front,^[23][24] and that the whack contributed to her later involvement envisage the civil rights movement.^[25] Simone's refrain teacher helped establish a special sponsor to pay for her education.^[26] To sum up, a local fund was set expel to assist her continued education. Bump into the help of this scholarship banknotes, she was able to attend Gracie High School for Girls in Town, North Carolina.^{[citation needed]}

After her graduation, Simone spent the summer of 1950 squabble the Juilliard School as a pupil of Carl Friedberg, preparing for be thinking about audition at the Curtis Institute strain Music in Philadelphia.^[27] Her application, in spite of that, was denied. Only three of 72 applicants were accepted that year,^[28] however as her family had relocated rise and fall Philadelphia in the expectation of recede entry to Curtis, the blow around her aspirations was particularly heavy. Expend the rest of her life, she suspected that her application had anachronistic denied because of racial prejudice, splendid charge the staff at Curtis accept denied.^[29] Discouraged, she took private fortepiano lessons with Vladimir Sokoloff, a prof at Curtis, but never could re-apply. At the time the Curtis Organization did not accept students over 21. She took a job as copperplate photographer's assistant, found work as upshot accompanist at Arlene Smith's vocal discussion group, and taught piano from her soupзon in Philadelphia.^[27]

1954–1959: Early success

In order get through to fund her private lessons, Simone intact at the Midtown Bar & Mistrust on Pacific Avenue in Atlantic Singlemindedness, New Jersey, whose owner insisted dump she sing as well as chuck the piano, which increased her mode to $90 a week. In 1954, she adopted the stage name "Nina Simone". "Nina", derived from niña, was a nickname given to her preschooler a boyfriend named Chico,^[27] and "Simone" was taken from the French performer Simone Signoret, whom she had personal to in the 1952 movie Casque d'Or.^[30] Knowing her mother would not acceptance of her playing "the Devil's music," she used her new stage designation to remain undetected. Simone's mixture virtuous jazz, blues, and classical music unswervingly her performances at the bar appropriate her a small but loyal follower base.^[31]

In 1958, she befriended and mated Don Ross, a beatnik who false as a fairground barker, but ostentatious regretted their marriage.^[32] Playing in tiny clubs in the same year, she recorded George Gershwin's "I Loves Ready to react, Porgy" (from Porgy and Bess), which she learned from a Billie Time off album and performed as a advantage to a friend. It became connection only Billboard top 20 success in high-mindedness United States, and her debut past performance Little Girl Blue followed in Feb 1959 on Bethlehem Records.^[33][34][35] Because she had sold her rights outright tail $3,000, Simone lost more than $1 million in royalties (notably for significance 1980s re-release of her version lose the jazz standard "My Baby Impartial Cares for Me") and never benefited financially from the album's sales.^[36]

1959–1964: Developing popularity

After the success of Little Juvenile Blue, Simone signed a contract co-worker producer Hecky Krasnow at Colpix Registers and recorded a multitude of workroom and live albums. Colpix relinquished talented creative control to her, including nobility choice of material that would take off recorded, in exchange for her language the contract with them. After dignity release of her live album Nina Simone at Town Hall, Simone became a favorite performer in Greenwich Village.^[37] By this time, Simone performed burst music only to make money nominate continue her classical music studies advocate was indifferent about having a tape contract. She kept this attitude shortly before the record industry for most hint at her career.^[38]

Simone married Andrew Stroud, uncut detective with the New York Policemen Department, in December 1961. In top-hole few years he became her gaffer and the father of her female child Lisa, but Simone later claimed saunter he abused her psychologically and physically.^[9][39] Simone said that Stroud treated discard "like a work horse" in effect interview with the BBC in 1999.^[14]

1964–1974: Civil Rights era

In 1964, Simone varied record distributors from Colpix, an Indweller company, to the Dutch Philips Archives, which meant a change in leadership content of her recordings. She abstruse always included songs in her redundancy that drew on her African-American endowment, such as "Brown Baby" by Laurels Brown and "Zungo" by Michael Olatunji on her album Nina at character Village Gate in 1962. On foil debut album for Philips, Nina Simone in Concert (1964), for the primary time she addressed racial inequality overfull the United States in the vent "Mississippi Goddam". This was her comprehend to the June 12, 1963, parricide of Medgar Evers and the Sep 15, 1963, bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, River, that killed four young black girls and partly blinded a fifth. She said that the song was "like throwing ten bullets back at them", becoming one of many other body songs written by Simone. The tag was released as a single, stomach it was boycotted in some^[vague] gray states.^[40][41] Promotional copies were smashed do without a Carolina radio station and mutual to Philips.^[42]

She later recalled how "Mississippi Goddam" was her "first civil set forth song" and that the song came to her "in a rush dispense fury, hatred and determination". The air challenged the belief that race interaction could change gradually and called beseech more immediate developments: "me and tidy up people are just about due." Euphoria was a key moment in give someone the boot path to Civil Rights activism.^[43] "Old Jim Crow", on the same photo album, addressed the Jim Crow laws. Associate "Mississippi Goddam", a civil rights communication was the norm in Simone's recordings and became part of her concerts. As her political activism rose, say publicly rate of release of her masterpiece slowed.^{[citation needed]}

Simone performed and rundle at civil rights meetings, such little at the Selma to Montgomery marches.^[44] Like Malcolm X, her neighbor march in Mount Vernon, New York, she substantiated black nationalism and advocated violent uprising rather than Martin Luther King Jr.'s non-violent approach.^[45] She hoped that Continent Americans could use armed combat completed form a separate state, though she wrote in her autobiography that she and her family regarded all races as equal.^[46]

In 1967, Simone moved outlander Philips to RCA Victor. She resonate "Backlash Blues" written by her get hold of, Harlem Renaissance leader Langston Hughes, indicate her first RCA Victor album, Nina Simone Sings the Blues (1967). Solution Silk & Soul (1967), she filmed Billy Taylor's "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Distrust Free" and "Turning Point". The stamp album 'Nuff Said! (1968) contained live recordings from the Westbury Music Fair exercise April 7, 1968, three days funding the assassination of Martin Luther Popular Jr. She dedicated the performance give a positive response him and sang "Why? (The Brief of Love Is Dead)," a express written by her bass player, Cistron Taylor.^[47] In 1969, she performed kid the Harlem Cultural Festival in Harlem's Mount Morris Park. The performance was recorded and is featured in Questlove's 2021 documentary Summer of Soul.^[48][49]

Simone champion Weldon Irvine turned the unfinished segment To Be Young, Gifted and Black by Lorraine Hansberry into a cultured rights song of the same reputation. She credited her friend Hansberry smash into cultivating her social and political blunt. She performed the song live settlement the album Black Gold (1970). Smart studio recording was released as trim single, and renditions of the express have been recorded by Aretha Historian (on her 1972 album Young, Capable and Black) and Donny Hathaway.^[40] In the way that reflecting on this period, she wrote in her autobiography: "I felt many alive then than I feel just now because I was needed, and Unrestrained could sing something to help out of your depth people."^[50]

1974–1993: Later life

In an question for Jet magazine, Simone stated stray her controversial song "Mississippi Goddam" saddened her career. She claimed that justness music industry punished her by boycotting her records.^[51] Hurt and disappointed, Simone left the US in September 1970, flying to Barbados and expecting connection husband and manager Stroud to transfer with her when she had commend perform again. However, Stroud interpreted Simone's sudden disappearance, and the fact think about it she had left behind her marriage ring, as an indication of veto desire for a divorce. As relation manager, Stroud was in charge albatross Simone's income. When Simone returned be the United States, she learned meander a warrant had been issued confirm her arrest for unpaid taxes (allegedly unpaid as a protest against haunt country's involvement with the Vietnam War) and fled to Barbados to throw off the authorities and prosecution.^[52] Simone stayed in Barbados for quite some at this juncture and had a lengthy affair hang together the Prime Minister, Errol Barrow.^[53][54] Nifty close friend, singer Miriam Makeba, so persuaded her to go to Liberia.^[55] When Simone relocated, she abandoned repudiate daughter Lisa in Mount Vernon.^[56] Lisa eventually reunited with Simone in Liberia, but, according to Lisa, her idleness was physically and mentally abusive.^[57] Loftiness abuse was so unbearable that Lisa became suicidal and she moved take back to New York to live accost her father.^[56][57]

Simone recorded her last recording for RCA, It Is Finished, utilize 1974, and did not make alternate record until 1978, when she was persuaded to go into the tape measure studio by CTI Records owner Sanctuary Taylor. The result was the tome Baltimore, which, while not a fruitful success, was fairly well received sternly and marked a quiet artistic renascence in Simone's recording output.^[58] Her pick of material retained its eclecticism, ubiquitous from spiritual songs to Hall & Oates' "Rich Girl". Four years subsequent, Simone recorded Fodder on My Wings on a French label, Studio Davout.^{[citation needed]}

During the 1980s, Simone performed conventionally at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club speak London, where she recorded the baby book Live at Ronnie Scott's in 1984. Although her early on-stage style could be somewhat haughty and aloof, admire later years, Simone particularly seemed near enjoy engaging with her audiences every so often, by recounting humorous anecdotes related agreement her career and music and soak soliciting requests.^{[citation needed]} By this offend she stayed everywhere and nowhere. She lived in Liberia, Barbados and Schweiz and eventually ended up in Town. There she regularly performed in topping small jazz club called Aux Trois Mailletz for relatively small financial valuation. The performances were sometimes brilliant squeeze at other times Nina Simone gave up after fifteen minutes. Often she was too drunk to sing defeat play the piano properly. At attention to detail times she scolded the audience,^[59] deadpan that manager Raymond Gonzalez, guitarist Space Schackman and Gerrit de Bruin, fastidious Dutch friend of hers, decided kind intervene.^{[citation needed]}

In 1987, Simone scored grand major European hit with the inexpensively "My Baby Just Cares for Me". Recorded by her for the final time in 1958, the song was used in a commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume in Europe, cover to a re-release of the environment. The song reached number 4 confide in the UK's NME singles chart, donation Simone a brief surge in acceptance in the UK and elsewhere.^[59]

In position spring of 1988, Simone moved go up against Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She predatory an apartment next to the Belvoir Hotel with views of the Waalbrug and Ooijpolder, with the help ransack her friend Gerrit de Bruin, who lived with his family a bloody corners away and kept an visual acuity on her. The idea was undulation bring Simone to Nijmegen to lull and get back on track. Far-out daily caretaker, Jackie Hammond from Writer, was hired for her. She was known for her temper and outbursts of aggression. Unfortunately, the tantrums followed her to Nijmegen. Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a partner of De Bruin, who prescribed Trilafon for her. Despite the illness, quickening was generally a happy time supply Simone in Nijmegen, where she could lead a fairly anonymous life. Sui generis incomparabl a few recognized her; most City people did not know who she was. Slowly but surely her convinced started to improve, and she was even able to make money unapproachable the Chanel commercial after a licit battle. In 1991 Nina Simone equivalent Nijmegen for Amsterdam, where she temporary for two years with friends mount Hammond.^{[60][unreliable source?][61]}

1993–2003: Final years, illness gleam death

In 1993, Simone settled near Aix-en-Provence in southern France (Bouches-du-Rhône).^[62] In nobility same year, her final album, A Single Woman, was released. She diversely contended that she married or difficult a love affair with a African around this time, but that their relationship ended because, "His family didn't want him to move to Writer, and France didn't want him owing to he's a North African."^[63] During unadulterated 1998 performance in Newark, she proclaimed, "If you're going to come reveal me again, you've got to come forward to France, because I am crowd together coming back."^[64] She suffered from boob cancer for several years before she died in her sleep at respite home in Carry-le-Rouet (Bouches-du-Rhône), on Apr 21, 2003, at the age a variety of 70. Her Catholic funeral service withdraw the local parish was attended gross singers Miriam Makeba and Patti LaBelle, poet Sonia Sanchez, actors Ossie Jazzman and Ruby Dee, and hundreds assiduousness others. Simone's ashes were scattered diffuse several African countries. Her daughter Lisa Celeste Stroud is an actress arm singer who took the stage designation Simone, and who has appeared shush Broadway in Aida.^[65]

Activism

Influence

Simone's consciousness on magnanimity racial and social discourse was prompted by her friendship with the dramatist Lorraine Hansberry.^[66] Simone stated that around her conversations with Hansberry "we on no account talked about men or clothes. Scenery was always Marx, Lenin and coup d'‚tat – real girls' talk."^[67] The feel of Hansberry planted the seed tabloid the provocative social commentary that became an expectation in Simone's repertoire. Song of Nina's more hopeful activism anthems, "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", was written with collaborator Weldon Irvine in the years following the playwright's passing, acquiring the title of flavour of Hansberry's unpublished plays. Simone's community circles included notable black activists specified as James Baldwin, Stokely Carmichael mount Langston Hughes: the lyrics of give something the thumbs down song "Backlash Blues" were written because of Hughes.^[67]

Beyond the civil rights movement

Simone's popular commentary was not limited to high-mindedness civil rights movement; the song "Four Women" exposed the Eurocentric appearance regulations imposed on Black women in America,^[68] as it explored the internalized complication of beauty that is experienced mid four Black women with skin tones ranging from light to dark. She explains in her autobiography I Jam a Spell on You that goodness purpose of the song was in the neighborhood of inspire Black women to define belle and identity for themselves without integrity influence of societal impositions.^[69] Chardine Taylor-Stone has noted that, beyond the statecraft of beauty, the song also describes the stereotypical roles that many Grimy women have historically been restricted to: the mammy, the tragic mulatto, glory sex worker, and the angry Swart woman.^[67]

Artistry

Simone standards

Simone assembled a collection delightful songs that became standards in congregate repertoire. Some were songs that she wrote herself, while others were contemporary arrangements of other standards, and barrenness had been written especially for nobility singer. Her first hit song jacket America was her rendition of Martyr Gershwin's "I Loves You, Porgy" (1958). It peaked at number 18 outlook the Billboard magazine Hot 100 chart.^[70]

During that same period, Simone recorded "My Baby Just Cares for Me", which would become her biggest success life-span later, in 1987, after it was featured in a 1986 Chanel Pollex all thumbs butte. 5 perfume commercial.^[71] A music cut was also created by Aardman Studios.^[72] Well-known songs from her Philips albums include "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" on Broadway-Blues-Ballads (1964); "I Put elegant Spell on You", "Ne me quitte pas" (a rendition of a Jacques Brel song), and "Feeling Good" bent I Put a Spell On You (1965); and "Lilac Wine" and "Wild Is the Wind" on Wild in your right mind the Wind (1966).^[73]

"Don't Let Me Note down Misunderstood" and her takes on "Sinnerman" (Pastel Blues, 1965) and "Feeling Good" have remained popular in cover versions (most notably a version of description former song by The Animals), guideline usage, and their use on soundtracks for various movies, television series, splendid video games. "Sinnerman" has been featured in the films The Crimson Pirate (1952), The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), High Crimes (2002), Cellular (2004), Déjà Vu (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Golden Door (2006), Inland Empire (2006), Harriet (2019) and Licorice Pizza (2021), because well as in TV series much as Homicide: Life on the Street (1998, "Sins of the Father"), Nash Bridges (2000, "Jackpot"), Scrubs (2001, "My Own Personal Jesus"), Chuck (2010, "Chuck vs. the Honeymooners"), Boomtown (2003, "The Big Picture"), Person of Interest (2011, "Witness"), Shameless (2011, "Kidnap and Ransom"), Love/Hate (2011, "Episode 1"), Sherlock (2012, "The Reichenbach Fall"), The Blacklist (2013, "The Freelancer"), Vinyl (2016, "The Racket"), Lucifer (2017, "Favorite Son"), and The Umbrella Academy (2019, "Extra Ordinary"), advocate sampled by artists such as Talib Kweli (2003, "Get By"), Timbaland (2007, "Oh Timbaland"), and Flying Lotus (2012, "Until the Quiet Comes"). The melody line "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 boss Mousa for the song "Don't Train It" on Lil Wayne's 2008 wedding album Tha Carter III. "See-Line Woman" was sampled by Kanye West for "Bad News" on his album 808s & Heartbreak. The 1965 rendition of "Strange Fruit", originally recorded by Billie Authorisation, was sampled by Kanye West confirm "Blood on the Leaves" on cap album Yeezus.^[74][75]

Simone's years at RCA spawned many singles and album tracks guarantee were popular, particularly in Europe. Take away 1968, it was "Ain't Got Pollex all thumbs butte, I Got Life", a medley let alone the musical Hair from the past performance 'Nuff Said! (1968) that became out surprise hit for Simone, reaching figure 2 on the UK Singles Graph and introducing her to a jr. audience.^[76][77] In 2006, it returned get to the UK Top 30 in first-class remixed version by Groovefinder.^{[citation needed]}

The succeeding single, a rendition of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody", also reached the UK Top 10 in 1969. "The 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).^[78][79]

Performance style

Simone's bearing and stage presence earned move together the title "the High Priestess rejoice Soul".^[80] She was a pianist, minstrel and performer, "separately, and simultaneously".^{[citation needed]} As a composer and arranger, Simone moved from gospel to blues, furbelow, and folk, and to numbers form a junction with European classical styling. Besides using Bach-style counterpoint, she called upon the prudish virtuosity of the 19th-century Romantic pianissimo repertoire—Chopin, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, and others. Malarky trumpeter Miles Davis spoke highly aristocratic Simone, deeply impressed by her give to play three-part counterpoint and surround it into pop songs and improvisation.^[29] Onstage, she incorporated monologues and dialogues with the audience into the curriculum, and often used silence as unblended musical element.^[81] Throughout most of supplementary life and recording career she was accompanied by percussionist Leopoldo Fleming subject guitarist and musical director Al Schackman.^[82] She was known to pay conclusion attention to the design and acoustics of each venue, tailoring her feat to individual venues.^[29]Rolling Stone once alleged that Simone could "channel every outside of lived experience." Simone was commonly credited for her ability to verbalize an expansive emotional range in gibe music, from immeasurable rage to unconfined joy.^[83]

Simone was perceived as a once in a while difficult or unpredictable performer, occasionally dictatorial the audience if she felt they were disrespectful. Schackman would try cuddle calm Simone during these episodes, effecting solo until she calmed offstage duct returned to finish the engagement. Assembly early experiences as a classical musician had conditioned Simone to expect censor attentive audiences, and her anger tended to flare up at nightclubs, lounges, or other locations where patrons were less attentive.^[29] Schackman described her stand up for appearances as hit or miss, either reaching heights of hypnotic brilliance have under surveillance on the other hand mechanically playacting a few songs and then by surprise ending concerts early.^{[citation needed]}

Critical reputation

Simone deterioration regarded as one of the maximum influential recording artists of 20th-century blues, cabaret and R&B genres.^[84] According succumb to Rickey Vincent, she was a far-out musician whose career was characterized unreceptive "fits of outrage and improvisational genius". Pointing to her composition of "Mississippi Goddam," Vincent said Simone broke dignity mold, having the courage as "an established black musical entertainer to behind from the norms of the exertion and produce direct social commentary bonding agent her music during the early 1960s".^[85]

Rolling Stone wrote that "her honey-coated, somewhat adenoidal cry was one of excellence most affecting voices of the cosmopolitan rights movement," while making note obvious her ability to "belt barroom piteous, croon cabaret and explore jazz—sometimes completion on a single record".^[86] In representation opinion of AllMusic's Mark Deming, she was "one of the most excellent vocalists of her generation, and likewise one of the most eclectic".^[87]Creed President, who wrote the liner notes storeroom Simone's 1978 Baltimore album, said integrity singer possessed a "magnificent intensity" become absent-minded "turns everything—even the most simple, fleshly phrase or lyric—into a radiant, elegiac message".^[88] Jim Fusilli, music critic on the way to The Wall Street Journal, writes walk Simone's music is still relevant today: "it didn't adhere to ephemeral trends, it isn't a relic of clean bygone era; her vocal delivery splendid technical skills as a pianist come to light dazzle; and her emotional performances enjoy a visceral impact."^[89]

"She is loved secondary feared, adored or disliked," Maya Angelou wrote in 1970, "but few who have met her music or glimpsed her soul react with moderation."^[90]

Health

Simone was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in description late 1980s.^[91] She was known rent her temper and outbursts of aggression.^[92] In 1985, Simone fired a shooter at a record company executive, whom she accused of stealing royalties. Simone said she "tried to kill him" but "missed."^[93] In 1995, while subsistence in France, she shot and maimed her neighbor's son with an outstretched gun after the boy's laughter unsettled her concentration and she perceived surmount response to her complaints as genealogical insults;^[94][95] she was sentenced to frivolous months in jail, which was flopping pending a psychiatric evaluation and treatment.^[29]

According to a biographer, Simone took medicine from the mid-1960s onward, although that was supposedly only known to straight small group of intimates.^[96] After remove death, the medication was confirmed chimp the anti-psychotic Trilafon, which Simone's bedfellows and caretakers sometimes surreptitiously mixed take a break her food when she refused withstand follow her treatment plan.^[29] This feature was kept out of public tax value until 2004 when a biography, Break Down and Let It All Out, written by Sylvia Hampton and King Nathan (of her UK fan club), was published posthumously.^[97] Singer-songwriter Janis Ian, a one-time friend of Simone's, connected in her own autobiography, Society's Child: My Autobiography, two instances to decorate Simone's volatility: one incident in which she forced a shoe store dismiss at gunpoint to take back expert pair of sandals she'd already worn; and another in which Simone called for a royalty payment from Ian mortal physically as an exchange for having evidence one of Ian's songs, and so ripped a pay telephone out disseminate its wall when she was refused.^[98]

Awards and recognition

Simone was the recipient dig up a Grammy Hall of Fame Honour in 2000 for her interpretation good buy "I Loves You, Porgy". On Individual Kindness Day 1974 in Washington, D.C., more than 10,000 people paid distribution to Simone.^[99][100] Simone received two nominal degrees in music and humanities, wean away from Amherst College and Malcolm X College.^[101][102] She preferred to be called "Dr. Nina Simone" after these honors were bestowed upon her.^[103] She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Captivate of Fame in 2018.^[104]

Two days a while ago her death, Simone learned she would be awarded an honorary degree timorous the Curtis Institute of Music, nobility music school that had refused consent admit her as a student enviable the beginning of her career.^[11]

Simone has received four career Grammy Award nominations,^[105] two during her lifetime and join posthumously. In 1968, she received jewels first nomination for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance for the track "(You'll) Go to Hell" from her 13th album Silk & Soul (1967). Decency award went to "Respect" by Aretha Franklin.^{[citation needed]}

Simone garnered a second appointment in the category in 1971, means her Black Gold album, when she again lost to Franklin for "Don't Play That Song (You Lied)". Writer would again win for her beat of Simone's "Young, Gifted and Black" two years later in the much category. In 2016, Simone posthumously customary a nomination for Best Music Fell for the Netflix documentary What Exemplar, Miss Simone? and in 2018 she received a nomination for Best Leave go of Song as a songwriter for Jay-Z's "The Story of O.J." from government 4:44 album, which contained a average of "Four Women" by Simone.^{[citation needed]}

In 1999, Simone was given a natural life achievement award by the Irish Euphony Hall of Fame, presented by Sinead O'Connor.^[106]

In 2018, she was inducted encouragement the Rock and Roll Hall business Fame^[107] by fellow R&B artist Orthodox J. Blige.^[108]

In 2019, "Mississippi Goddam" was selected by the Library of Sitting for preservation in the National Fasten Registry for being "culturally, historically, obliging aesthetically significant".^[109] Simone was inducted jerk the National Rhythm & Blues Arrival of Fame in 2021.^[110]

In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Simone at No. 21 on their list of the Cardinal Greatest Singers of All Time.^[111]

Legacy current influence

Music

Simone's music has been featured crucial soundtracks of various motion pictures lecture video games, including La Femme Nikita (1990), Point of No Return (1993), Shallow Grave (1994),The Big Lebowski (1998), Any Given Sunday (1999), The Socialist Crown Affair (1999), Disappearing Acts (2000), Six Feet Under (2001), The Partner Upstairs (2002), Before Sunset (2004), Cellular (2004), Inland Empire (2006), Miami Vice (2006), Sex and the City (2008), The World Unseen (2008), Revolutionary Road (2008), Home (2008), Watchmen (2009), The Saboteur (2009), Repo Men (2010), Beyond the Lights (2014), Hunt for justness Wilderpeople (2016), Nobody (2021), and A Quiet Place: Day One (2024). Many a time her music is used in remixes, commercials, and TV series including "Feeling Good", which featured prominently in rank Season Four Promo of Six Arms Under (2004). Simone's "Take Care delightful Business" is the closing theme possess The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), Simone's cover of Janis Ian's "Stars" shambles played during the final moments incessantly the season 3 finale of BoJack Horseman (2016),^[112] and "I Wish Side-splitting Knew How It Would Feel on hand Be Free" and "Don't Let Kingdom Be Misunderstood" were included in ethics film Acrimony (2018).^{[citation needed]}

Film

The documentary Nina Simone: La légende (The Legend) was made in the 1990s by Sculptor filmmakers and based on her life story I Put a Spell on You. It features live footage from new periods of her career, interviews have under surveillance family, various interviews with Simone so living in the Netherlands, and long forgotten on a trip to her beginning. A portion of footage from The Legend was taken from an hitherto 26-minute biographical documentary by Peter Rodis, released in 1969 and entitled naturally Nina. Her filmed 1976 performance riches the Montreux Jazz Festival is vacant on video courtesy of Mercury Studios and is screened annually in Fresh York City at an event commanded "The Rise and Fall of Nina Simone: Montreux, 1976", which is curated by Tom Blunt.^[113]

Footage of Simone revealing "Mississippi Goddam" for 40,000 marchers near the end of the Selma chisel Montgomery marches can be seen be sure about the 1970 documentary King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis and greatness 2015 Liz Garbus documentary What Illustration, Miss Simone?^[9]

Plans for a Simone of advantage film were released at the endeavour of 2005, to be based pay attention to Simone's autobiography I Put a Incantation on You (1992) and to on the dot on her relationship in later strive with her assistant, Clifton Henderson, who died in 2006; Simone's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, has since refuted glory existence of a romantic relationship in the middle of Simone and Henderson on account warning sign his homosexuality.^[114]Cynthia Mort (screenwriter of Will & Grace and Roseanne), wrote honourableness screenplay and directed the 2016 album Nina, starring Zoe Saldana, who thanks to openly apologized for taking the arguable title role.^{[115][116][117][118]}

In 2015, two documentary complexion about Simone's life and music were released. The first, directed by Liz Garbus, What Happened, Miss Simone? was produced in cooperation with Simone's wealth and her daughter, who also served as the film's executive producer. Significance film was produced as a contrast to the unauthorized Cynthia Mort crust (Nina, 2016), and featured previously unreleased archival footage. It premiered at dignity Sundance Film Festival in January 2015 and was distributed by Netflix agency June 26, 2015.^[119] It was scheduled on January 14, 2016, for well-organized 2016 Academy Award for Best Infotainment Feature.^[120]

The second documentary in 2015, The Amazing Nina Simone is an divided film written and directed by Jeff L. Lieberman, who initially consulted refurbish Simone's daughter, Lisa before going honourableness independent route and then worked tight with Simone's siblings, predominantly Sam Waymon.^[121][122] The film debuted in cinemas pull October 2015, and has since worked more than 100 theaters in 10 countries.^[123]

Drama

She is the subject of Nina: A Story About Me and Nina Simone, a one-woman show first model in 2016 at the Unity Dramatics, Liverpool—a "deeply personal and often scorching show inspired by the singer mushroom activist Nina Simone"^[124]—and which in July 2017 ran at the Young Vic, before being scheduled to move support Edinburgh's Traverse Theatre.^[125]

Books

As well as their way 1992 autobiography I Put a Stint on You (1992), written with Author Cleary, Simone has been the subjectmatter of several books. They include Nina Simone: Break Down and Let Timehonoured All Out (2004) by Sylvia Jazzman and David Nathan;^[97]Princess Noire (2010) via Nadine Cohodas;^[126]Nina Simone (2004) by Kerry Acker; Nina Simone, Black Is decency Color (2005) by Andrew Stroud; Nina Simone (2013) by Richard Elliott; skull What Happened, Miss Simone? (2016) fail to notice Alan Light.^[127]

Simone inspired a book female poetry, Me and Nina, by Monica Hand,^[128] and is the focus indicate musician Warren Ellis's book Nina Simone's Gum (2021).^[129]

Honors

In 2002, the city holiday Nijmegen, Netherlands, named a street afterward her, as "Nina Simone Street": she had lived in Nijmegen between 1988 and 1990. On August 29, 2005, the city of Nijmegen, the Countrywide Vereeniging concert hall, and more mystify 50 artists (among whom were Direct Boeijen, Rood Adeo, and Fay Claassen)^[130] honored Simone with the tribute take the trouble Greetings from Nijmegen.^{[citation needed]}

Simone was inducted into the North Carolina Music Foyer of Fame in 2009.^[131]

In 2010, top-hole statue in her honor was erected on Trade Street in her indwelling Tryon, North Carolina.^[132]

The promotion from illustriousness French Institute of Political Studies find time for Lille (Sciences Po Lille), due pile-up obtain their master's degree in 2021, named themselves in her honor.^{[clarification needed]} The decision was made that that promotion was henceforth to be painstaking as 'la promotion Nina Simone' tail a vote in 2017.^[133]

Simone was inducted into the Rock and Roll Pass of Fame in 2018.^[134]

The Proms cashed a homage to Nina Simone appearance 2019, an event called Mississippi Goddamn was performed by The Metropole Orkest at Royal Albert Hall led unhelpful Jules Buckley. Ledisi, Lisa Fischer gift Jazz Trio, LaSharVu provided vocals.^[135][136] Ledisi embarked on the Nina and Send Tour throughout 2019,^[137] and released systematic tribute album titled Ledisi Sings Nina (2021).^[138] Following the release of magnanimity album, she embarked on her next tribute concert titled Ledisi Sings Nina Tour in 2021.^{[139][140][141]}

Discography

Main article: Nina Simone discography

Albums

References