Nina Simone

Among her generation's standout singers, Nina Simone ranked as both exceptionally talented and strikingly diverse. A vocalist, pianist, and composer, she reshaped musical categories to fit her vision instead of conforming to their restrictions, moving fluidly across jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop, gospel, and world music while maintaining passion, emotional directness, and technical command as steady elements throughout her career.

Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina, she grew up with a mother, Mary Kate Waymon, who served as a Methodist minister, and a father, John Divine Waymon, who worked as a handyman and occasional preacher. At age three Eunice already showed unusual musical ability by picking out melodies on the family piano, and within a few years she was accompanying services at her mother's church. Mary Kate took part-time housekeeping work, and her employers, impressed by Eunice's playing, arranged lessons with pianist Muriel Mazzanovich, who trained her in the classics with emphasis on Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Schubert. After finishing first in her high school class, Eunice won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music in New York City and sought admission to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. Despite what witnesses described as an outstanding audition, she was turned down under unclear conditions; she later maintained that racial prejudice had decided the outcome.

Intent on earning a living through music, she took a 1954 job playing piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where management required her to sing jazz standards and current hits as well. Lacking prior vocal experience, she performed convincingly enough to keep the position and chose the stage name Nina Simone, drawing “Nina” from a boyfriend’s nickname and “Simone” from actress Simone Signoret. She quickly developed into a distinctive singer whose blend of jazz, blues, and classical elements attracted a devoted following. Within several years she was headlining clubs along the East Coast, and in 1957 label owner Syd Nathan of King Records noticed her, offering a contract on his jazz imprint Bethlehem Records. The strong-minded artist clashed with Nathan over repertoire choices, yet prevailed, scoring a major success in 1958 with her version of “I Loves You Porgy” from Porgy and Bess. The single reached the pop Top 20, but disputes over royalties and creative control led her to move to Colpix Records by 1959.

By then her stature as a compelling live performer had grown further, and her second Colpix album, Nina Simone at Town Hall, became the first of many concert recordings she would issue. Those performances allowed greater display of her classical piano background, while her Colpix studio sets revealed thoughtful selections of standards, pop material, and supper-club blues. Although she did not repeat the pop-chart impact of “I Loves You Porgy,” her readings of “Trouble in Mind” and “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” both appeared on the singles charts. Her Colpix 7-inch sides were later gathered by Rhino Records on the 2018 compilation The Colpix Singles.

In 1964 she left Colpix for Philips, a change that paralleled a new emphasis on social themes in her work. Although she had long been aware of the civil-rights struggle, she had generally avoided overt political statements, later explaining, “How can you take the memory of a man like Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three-and-a-half minutes and a simple tune?” As racial-justice issues intensified, however, she began writing songs such as “Mississippi Goddam,” “Four Women,” and “Young, Gifted and Black,” the last inspired by her friend and mentor Lorraine Hansberry. She also scored a British hit that year with “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”; although it fared modestly in the United States, the Animals took the song onto charts on both sides of the Atlantic the following year. Her cover of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” likewise charted in Britain and reached the U.S. Top 30.

After seven Philips albums, she signed with RCA Records in 1967. Her first RCA release, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, stayed close to standard blues repertoire, yet subsequent records turned toward contemporary pop, rock, and soul songs often marked by topical or progressive ideas; To Love Somebody (1969) alone contained three Bob Dylan compositions. Her 1968 treatment of “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” from the musical Hair became a major U.K. hit. Increasingly dissatisfied with American politics and unwilling to pay taxes in protest against U.S. involvement in Vietnam, she left the country in 1970, settling first in Barbados and separating from her husband and manager. Recording sessions and occasional concerts still brought her back to the United States, and in 1974 she completed her final RCA album, It Is Finished. For several years she traveled widely and performed sporadically, returning to the studio only in 1978 to record Baltimore for Creed Taylor’s CTI label in Belgium. That same year she faced arrest and charges related to unpaid taxes from 1971 to 1973. Four more years passed before she cut Fodder on My Wings for a Swiss label in 1982.

After further travels she issued the live set Live & Kickin on the American VPI label in 1985, followed in 1987 by Let It Be Me on Verve. The latter year marked a strong European resurgence: her 1959 recording of “My Baby Just Cares for Me” appeared in a British television commercial for Chanel No. 5, propelling the track into the U.K. Top Ten. In 1989 Pete Townshend invited her to sing “Fast Food” on his concept album The Iron Man, which also featured John Lee Hooker. Her autobiography I Put a Spell on You appeared in 1990, and after a successful U.S. tour she signed with Elektra Records, which released A Single Woman in 1993.

In 1995 she drew headlines after firing a gun during a dispute with a neighbor; she was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder, cited as a factor in several episodes of unpredictable conduct during her final decades. She continued performing in Europe and the United States until summer 2002, when breast cancer was detected. She died of the disease on April 21, 2003, in Carry-le-Rouet, France. Only days earlier she had received an honorary degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the school that had rejected her in 1953.