Nina Simone's
Top 10 Records |
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Nina Simone |
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Name: Nina Simone
| Nee: |
Eunice Kathleen Waymon |
| Born: |
21 Feb 1933 |
| Died: |
21 Apr 2003 |
| Origin: |
Tryon, North Carolina, United States |
| Instruments: |
Piano, Vocal |
| Styles: |
Jazz Vocal - Modern Jazz Vocal |
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| Nina Simone was a singer, songwriter and pianist. She generally is classified as a jazz musician, but disliked that categorisation herself; and her work also has been described as covering the blues, rhythm and blues and soul.
Nina Simone was born one of eight children.
Like a number of other African-American singers, she was inspired as a child by Marian Anderson and began singing at her local church, also showing prodigious talent as a pianist. When she debuted publicly at a piano recital at age ten, her parents, who had taken seats in the front row, were forced to move to make way for whites. This incident contributed to her later involvement in the US Civil Rights Movement.
At seventeen, Nina Simone moved to Philadelphia, where she taught piano and accompanied singers. She was able to begin studying piano at New York City's prestigious Juilliard School of Music, thanks to the sponsorship of benefactors, but lack of funds meant that she was unable to fulfill her dream of becoming America's first African-American concert pianist. She later had an interview to study piano at the Curtis Institute, but was rejected. Simone believed that she was rejected because she was black. |
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