Nina Simone Biography, Photos and Posters

Nina Simone

Biography

Born: February 21, 1933
Hometown: Tryon, North Carolina
Instrument: Vocalist/Pianist/Arranger/Composer
Music Training: piano lessons at 6; Julliard School of Music
Bands and Orchestras:
Signature Song: "I Loves You Porgy"
Nina Simone biography: Nina Simone was the sixth of eight children. She showed a talent for music at an early age and sang and played the piano at a local church. When she was only 6 a benefactor paid for her first piano lessons. At 10 she gave her first piano recital at a local library. Unfortunately, this is where she got a first hand glimpse of racism. Her parents were forced to give up their front row seats to accommodate whites. This was a lesson she would never forget and she became committed to the civil rights movement.

In 1950 Simone left North Carolina to continue her musical education at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. Afterwards her family moved to Philadelphia where she applied to but was rejectd by the prestigious Curtis Institute, probably because of her color. To support herself she became an accompanist for a music teacher and then a singer-pianist at a bar in Atlantic City where she took the professional name Nina Simone. This gig landed her engagements at several Philadelphia clubs and helped launch her career. Her first album Jazz as played in an Exclusive Side Street Club also known as Little Girl Blue was a success first in Philly and New York and then the rest of the country. The single "I Loves You Porgy" and "He Needs Me" became a national hit rising to number 13 on the R&B charts selling over a million copies. In 1959 she signed with Colpix (Columbia Pictures Records) where she recorded "Wild Is The Wind", "Sayonara", "Samson and Delilah." In 1961 she got married to Andy Stroud a New York detective.

In 1964 she started a productive recording relationship with Philips Records, a subsidiary of Mercury. Over 3 years she recorded 7 albums with Philips. Among these songs was "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", which was quickly covered by the Animals. During this association she wrote "Mississippi Goddam!" a protest song over the murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi. In 1966 she would switch to RCA Records where she would stay through 1974. While with RCA she recorded 9 albums including a medley from Hair "Ain't Got No/I Got Life," a soul version of the Bee Gees "To Love Somebody" and "To Be Young, Gifted And Black." Since 1969 Nina has become a nomad, renouncing her American citizenship, living in Liberia, Switzerland, France, Trinidad, UK, the Netherlands and Belgium. In 1993 she moved to the south of France.

Search Site by Artist:

Create search engine for website.