Nina Simone, soul's high priestess

APPRECIATION

Nina Simone was 10 when she was first hit by the harsh realities of racism. The piano prodigy was giving her first recital at the library in her hometown of Tyron, N.C., in 1943, when her proud parents were ejected from their front row seats and moved to the back to make room for some Whites who had just arrived. Simone - who died April 21 in her home in southern France at age 70 - never forgot the trauma of that day and throughout her life remained committed to fighting prejudice.

Simone, known as the "High Priestess of Soul," was friends with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and her fiery protest songs of the 1960s are among her most beloved works. She wrote "Mississippi Goddam," a bitter indictment of the condition of Blacks in America, after the 1963 murders of Medgar Evers and four Alabama schoolgirls. "Why? The King of Love is Dead" captured the social pain brought on by the assassination of the civil rights leader, and "To be Young, Gifted and Black," inspired by her friend Lorraine Hansberry's play, became an anthem for Black aspirations.

Though often described as a jazz singer, the classically trained Simone (born Eunice Kathleen Waymon) was almost impossible to categorize, as her repetoire included everything from gospel to Gershwin. She gained stardom with her 1959 recording of "I Loves You Porgy" from the musical Porgy and Bess. Throughout the 1960s and early '70s, she infused popular songs such as George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord," Screaming Jay Hawkins' "I Put A Spell on You" and "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" from the musical Hair with new meaning and deeper levels of emotion.

Despite her success, Simone became disgusted with the music industry and fed up with racism in America and left the country for good in 1974. For the next two decades, she lived all over Europe and Africa before settling in France. She continued to record and tour internationally and released her autobiography, I Put A Spell on You, in 1992.

Hundreds of mourners - including South African singer Miriam Makeba - crowded a church in Carry-le-Rouet, France, for her funeral. Her daughter, Lisa Stroud, - a singer who goes by the name Simone - interrupted her starring role in Broadway's Aida to be there.

- Steve Jones is a music critic with USA Today

Copyright Crisis Publishing Company, Incorporated May/Jun 2003
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