On February 21, 2023, African-American singer Nina Simone would have turned 90. While the recording industry is mobilizing to honor his memory, his aura continues to arouse admiration and questioning. His unpredictable personality, his radicalism, his outbursts, didn’t they express a malaise rather than an excessive temper? In retrospect, wasn’t Nina Simone right to rebel against social excesses, discrimination and racial violence? Through several sound documents taken from our archives, this week we are listening again to the voice of a rebellious woman and the relevance of her words.
Nina Simone was a rebellious artist, a battered woman, a sensitive soul and a fearsome activist. It was said of her that she was capricious. Perhaps it was necessary to see there the fragility of a troubled existence, jostled by the renunciations, the humiliations, the bullying and the social violence of a particularly harsh era. When her first album, “Little Girl Blue” appeared in 1959, the public did not know that the young singer and pianist was a frustrated artist. All her life, she will have regretted not having achieved her ultimate goal: to be a classical soloist. In many interviews, she sadly admitted having had to adapt to a destiny of “Jazz Woman” that she had not wanted.
His family is a reflection of the black population of the time, often destitute and rejected by a racist and deeply unequal society. For little Eunice Kathleen Waymon, music is a refuge and will quickly become a passion. She shows very early good dispositions for the interpretation of religious hymns. Through a piano teacher, Madame Massinovitch, the future Nina Simone discovers the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and delights in them. The enthusiasm of those close to him in front of his instrumental prowess feeds his desire to see bigger and, why not, to be a classical concert artist. What the young Miss Waymon didn’t consider was the color of her skin. When she comes to the Juilliard School of Music in New York, racism is an inescapable reality and plagues society as a whole. To achieve her dreams, she must pass a competition that will decide her registration in a prestigious American musical institution. She is young, gifted but black! She will fail and will have to live with this failure until the end of her days. His bitterness would turn into protest and later into fierce activism against racial segregation. Many years after this unfortunate episode, she continued to curse and complain about the fate that had been reserved for her. Had she been discriminated against or had she just missed her performance in front of the jury? In his eyes, the question did not even arise. She was the victim of an unequal system!
Nina Simone therefore does not become a concert performer. So she turns to jazz, blues, Afro-American music, without detaching herself completely from the classical repertoire. Yet she feels trapped. She has the ability to compete with the greatest classical pianists but her black skin prevents her from doing so. His dissatisfaction continues to grow and it becomes difficult for him to justify his artistic choices, to describe his music, his creative intention. Nina Simone is a woman wounded in her self-esteem. She wants to perform in auditoriums but only small clubs are reserved for her. She is enraged at trampling like this and looks for a way to express her anger. She performs “Protest Songs”, protest tunes that accompany African-American struggle movements. In the early 1960s, at the dawn of a social revolution in the United States, his discourse became more radical. Gradually, Nina Simone finds her way. She denounces, rebels and takes advantage of her growing notoriety to proclaim her refusal of gratuitous violence. In 1964, at Carnegie Hall, one of the great American performance halls, she dared to sing “Mississippi Goddam”, a sling against the abuses of the southern authorities against the black population in this very conservative state.
Perceived as a committed and now essential voice, Nina Simone does not only make friends. She has become a cumbersome personality who defies the established order. The American taxman is persecuting her. She ends up leaving her native country to avoid inevitable legal proceedings. She took refuge first in Barbados, then in Liberia. She must then resolve to live far from the United States. The years pass and Nina Simone is not well. In July 1976, Nina Simone reappeared in Montreux, Switzerland, where her psychological fragility came to light during a historically feverish concert captured by the cameras of Claude Nobs, founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival. This performance is now available on DVD in the series “The Montreux Years”.
It is in Paris that hope is reborn. She survives in clubs in the city of light, without much fervor, and yet accepts a request, that of the producer Yves Chamberland who invites her to the Davout studio. “Fodder on my wings” will be Nina Simone’s last great album. Certainly, the moods of the black star will punctuate the recording of this disc with uncertain sound colors but they will give him the taste to perform on stage, to be in the spotlight again. The decisive boost will come from the world of advertising. A spot for a famous perfume will relaunch “My Baby Just Cares For Me” on radio and television. Nina Simone will find favor with the public and the microphones of journalists. Always so determined, she will resume her militant speech.
At the end of her life, Nina Simone seemed to accept her destiny. She responded with a little more temperance to the questions of music critics and her fans. She complied with good grace in the exercise of the interview even if it was necessary to take care not to offend her. Was she finally at peace with herself? We like to believe…
Several events salute the artist today…
– Decca Records is releasing an anniversary compilation!
– The title “Stars” recorded in Montreux in 1976 is reissued by the Montreux Jazz Festival, RTS, BMG and Montreux Sounds
– Editions “The Word and The Rest” recommends the biography of Frédéric Adrian.
– Singer Kareen Guiock Thuram announces a concert in tribute to Nina Simone on February 28 at the New Morning in Paris.