Avatar star Zoe Saldana, who was to play jazz legend Nina Simone in eagerly anticipated biopic Nina, has faced backlash from the critics about the colour of her skin.Because of this she will always be “The High Priestess of Soul. She was unapologetically and forever Young, Gifted, & Black. She had the voice, beauty, grace, poise, and passion of queen that made her one of a kind. Her music has been featured in commercials, movies and television shows.
On April 21, 2003, Nina Simone died of natural causes in Carry-le-Rouet, Bouches-du-Rhône, France. Simone lived in Barbados, Liberia, Switzerland, the Netherlands and eventually settled in France in 1992. Blige, Alicia Keys, Jeff Buckley, and Lauryn Hill), as well as the extensive use of her music on soundtracks and in remixes.” – Find Biography Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on African-American culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence (among them Mary J. Songs she is best known for include “My Baby Just Cares for Me”, “I Put a Spell on You”, “I Loves You Porgy”, “Feeling Good”, “Sinner Man”, “To Be Young, Gifted and Black”, “Strange Fruit”, “Ain’t Got No-I Got Life” and “I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl”. “Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the biggest body of her work being released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. In 1974 Simone quit the music business.” – Rolling Stone
Financially, she fell upon hard times, and she divorced her manager/husband (her first marriage had also failed). She became even more intense and unpredictable in concert, and despite continuing critical acclaim, she gradually lost her commercial standing. “By then she had become a black-power activist (her first protest song, “Mississippi Goddam,” mourned the death of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers), and politically oriented tracks like “Four Women” (on an out-of-print Philips album) alienated her white audience. This led to sizable popularity in England, where she had hits with “Ain’t Got No/I Got Life” (from Hair) in 1968 and the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” in 1969. “In the 1960s she moved toward R&B, recording Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” and “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (a subsequent hit for the Animals). In 1962, she gave birth to her daughter Lisa Celeste (Lisa Stroud), who is the star in Elton John’s Aida. In 1961, Nina Simone married Andrew Stroud. In 1958, she married Don Ross and eventually divorced him in 1960. Her first album featured her distinctive versions of jazz and cabaret standards, including “I Loves You, Porgy,” which became a 1959 hit.” – Encyclopedia Britannica Her vocal career began in 1954 in an Atlantic City, N.J., nightclub when the club owner threatened to fire her unless she sang too. A student of classical music at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, she began performing as a pianist. She became sensitive to racism when at age 12 she gave a piano recital in a library where her parents had to stand in back because they were black. “A precocious child, she played piano and organ in girlhood. Over the years the fund grew large enough to support her advanced education.” – “Not only did her musically talented parents back their child prodigy offspring, Miss Mazzy and the entire community supported the Eunice Waymon Fund, a bank account that family, friends, and Tyron residents envisioned would allow her to become the first black American classical pianist. Her mother Mary Kate Waymon was a minister and a maid and her father was a John Divine Waymon a business man and handyman. Her name is from the French actress and Simone Signoret and from her ex boyfriend (Nina). (Eunice Kathleen Waymon) Nina Simone was born 79 years ago today on Februin Tryon North Carolina. the new inventive phrases we make up to describe things - all that to me is jazz just as much as the music we play.” “Jazz is not just music, it’s a way of life, it’s a way of being, a way of thinking. Singer, Writer, Pianist, Civil Rights Activist and Mother
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