Nina Simone (1933 – 2003)
Photo: Getty Images, Robert Abbott Sengstacke. All rights reserved.
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“White people had Judy Garland—we had Nina,” said comedian Richard Pryor.
Nina Simone’s honeyed, slightly nasal voice is an integral part of the American civil rights movement – “1 Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free” still tears your heart to this day, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” is still a manifesto of the Enjoyment of life.
She was just as capable of wild bar blues as she was of vaudeville babble and jazz experiments – sometimes she brought all that and more on a single record.
“Once I heard her sing a song in French. I didn’t understand a word, but it still brought tears to my eyes,” says Mary J. Blige, who played Simone in a film. “Then she went on with ‘Mississippi Goddam,’ and it sounded like gospel, even though she condemned the system in it. Nina could just sing anything, that’s that.”
- BIRTHDAY: February 21, 1933 († April 21, 2003)
- GOLDEN MOMENTS: “Mississippi Goddam”, “Four Women”, ,I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free”
- INSPIRATION FOR: Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright
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