As
we continue to celebrate women in jazz, it is noteworthy to observe that women
in jazz have played every instrument in every style and have engaged the same
aesthetic and technical developments as their male colleagues. Yet, with the
exception of singers and some pianist, women are invariably perceived as a new
breed.
They
are usually marketed as incipient and consumed as curiosities, but despite
their aura as being perpetually unprecedented, female jazz musicians do have a
history.
The
early music history of the roots of jazz is rich with the active participation
of African American women in spirituals, gospel and blues. Piano music was
always considered appropriate and desirable for women, and many female pianist
and composers participated in the ragtime craze of the early 1900’s.
Although
social expectations of what women should and could do impacted their working
conditions, reception and opportunities, female jazz musicians have proven
their worth repeatedly for over a century.
One
of the most controversial female jazz musicians is a lady known for her
revolutionary stance and her pride of being black.
Her
birth name is Eunice Kathleen Waymon; she was born in Tryon, North Carolina,
USA on February 21st 1933. Better known
by her stage name Nina Simone, she was an American singer, songwriter, pianist
arranger and civil rights activist. She started playing the piano at the age of
three and aspired very early to become a classical pianist, while working in a
broad range of styles including classical, jazz, blues, soul, R&B, gospel
and pop.
Nina
has a distinctive style that is very original and wide-ranging, consisting of a
fusion of gospel and pop songs with classical music.
She
was very much influenced by the classical composer Bach and injected as much of
her classical background into her music to give it more depth and quality. She
always felt that pop music was inferior to the classics and was very particular
with her choice of material for work during her career.
Nina
played her first concert when she was twelve. This performance was a classical
recital where she played the piano to a mixed audience. She later claimed that
during that performance, her parents who had taken seats in the front row were
forced to move to the back of the hall to make room for white people.
Nina
then refused to play until her parents were returned to the front. This
incident announced the beginning of her involvement in the civil rights
movement. After finishing high school, Nina tried to enroll at the Curtis
Institute of music, but was rejected because of her being black. She then moved
to the Julliard School of Musicin New York where she would further her studies
and concentration on classical music techniques.
It
was not easy attending this private institution because she did not have a
scholarship, so, in order to fund her studies, she performed weekly at the
Midtown Bar and Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
She
played the piano and sang at this club and many other small clubs in the area,
and in 1954, she adopted the stage name – Nina Simone.
During
this period in 1958, she recorded a single rendition of George Gershwin’s “I
love You Porgy” which had already been recorded by Billie Holiday who was one
of her favorite singers. This recording became a success and a billboard top 40
hit and was soon followed by her debut album on Bethlehem Records – “Little
Girl Blue”.
After
the success of “Little Girl Blue “, Nina landed a contract with a bigger
company, Colpix Records. The success of “Little Girl Blue “with Bethlehem
Records was bitter sweet because she was only paid $3000 for the recording session,
and was unable to benefit financially from millions in royalties after the same
song was re-released in the 1980s as “My Baby Just Cares For Me”.
Her
contract with Colpix was different and more empowering, giving Nina complete
creative control including the choice of material that would be recorded. A
string of studio and live albums would follow, and she performed mainly popular
music in order to make money and continue her studies in classical music.
She
was indifferent to having a recording contract, and maintained this attitude
for most of her career.
In
1961, Nina married a New York police detective, Andrew Stroud who later became
her manager.
The
sixties was an era of civil rights politics and America was undergoing a
radical transformation. In 1964, she changed record companies from the
American, Colpix to the Dutch, Phillips. This gave her a little more freedom
and brought a change in the contents of her recordings.
Nina
had always included songs that drew upon her African American origins in her
repertoire, and songs such as “Brown Baby” and “Zungo” were featured on her
album “Nina at the Village Gate”.
However,
on her debut album with Phillips, she for the first time addressed the racial
inequality in the U.S.A. with the song “Mississippi Goddam”. This was her
response to the murder of civil rights activist Medger Evers and the bombing of
a black church in Birmingham, Alabama. The record was released as a single but
also boycotted in certain southern states. Civil rights messages became
standard in her recordings and live performances and she spoke at many civil
rights meetings such as the Selma to Montgomery march demanding equal rights
for African Americans.
Nina
was a strong admirer of Billie Holiday and featured Holiday’s song “Strange
Fruits” on the cover of her album ”Pastel Blues” released in 1965. The song
“Strange Fruits” is about the lynching of black men in the southern part of the
United States, and was from a poem by W. Cuney. Nina would change record
companies again, and in 1967, she signed with RCA Victor Records. Her first
album with RCA released in the same year under the title “Nina Sings the Blues”
featured a song written by her friend Langston Hughes, the playwright and
author. The song was called “Backlash Blues” and on another album “Silk and
Soul” released during the same period; she would record some of Billy Taylor’s
music. In 1968, she recorded the album “Nuff Said” which contained live
recordings made three days after the murder of Martin Luther King. The whole performance
was dedicated to King in a song entitled “Why (The King of Love is Dead)”which
was written by Gene Taylor, Nina’s bass player.
In
1970, Nina worked with producer Weldon Irwine and made Lorraine Hansberry’s
unfinished play into a civil rights song. The song entitled “To Be Young Gifted
and Black” was performed live and recorded on her album- ‘Black Gold’.
A
studio recording was later released as a single and renditions of the song have
been recorded by Aretha Franklin and the late Danny Harthaway. A few months
after the release of the ‘Black Gold’, Nina left the U.S.A. and moved to the
Caribbean Island of Barbados. She went to Barbados alone, leaving her husband
and manager behind.
There
was lack of proper communication or miscommunication between the two, and this,
coupled with the fact that Nina left her wedding ring behind, convinced her
husband who was also her manager that she wanted a divorce.
This
incident was very crucial in Nina’s career because her financial records were
not given the needed attention, and when she eventually returned to the US, she
learnt that there was a warrant for her arrest for unpaid taxes.
She
was forced to return back to Barbados where she stayed for a few years until
her friend and fellow musician- Miriam Makeba convinced her to move to Liberia.
Nina stayed in Liberia for a brief period and later moved to Switzerland and
the Netherlands, before finally settling in France in 1992.
Nina
recorded her last album – “A Single Woman” in 1993 while living in Southern France.
She bought a house in Carry-Le- Rouet near Aix-en-Provence and stayed there
until her death in 2003.
Her
funeral service was attended by Miriam Makeba, Patti Labelle, Poet Sonia
Sanchez and actor Ossie Davis. She was cremated according to her wish, and her
ashes scattered in several African countries.
Nina
Simone lived and died as a proud black woman.
