Lisa celeste stroud andrew stroud
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“The High Priestess of Soul,” Nina Simone was a singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Mostly known as a jazz singer, her music blended gospel, blues, folk, pop, and classical styles. No popular singer was more closely associated with the Civil Rights Movement than Simone.
Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher and housekeeper, and her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as an entertainer, barber, and dry-cleaner. The family’s home was filled with music and Simone’s mother encouraged her musical pursuits but did not approve of nonreligious music like blues and jazz. Simone took up the piano before her feet could reach the pedals, and by the age of six, she was playing during church services.
Simone soon began formal training, her lessons paid for by benefactors who saw her promise as a pianist. She learned classical repertory and specialized in playing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach. Funds donated by a pair of white patrons in Tryon allowed Simone to attend the Allen High School for Girls, a private, integrated high school in Asheville, North Carolina. In 1950, Simone graduated from Allen as the valedictorian.
She earned a scholarship for a one-y
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My mummy at no time cared courier me: Groggy, depressed - and a terrifying beast of a mother, description only little one of Nina Simone gives a kick account center life goslow the singer
By ADAM Fate FOR MAILONLINE
Published: | Updated:
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'My mother could be a monster,' alleged Lisa, lawabiding for rendering first meaning about man with Nina Simone
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Nina Simone: A Troubled Star who Paid a High Price for her Beliefs
Describing her own voice, Nina Simone once said: “Sometimes I sound like gravel, and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream.”
One critic called it a “whiskey soaked vibrato… Simone’s voice always sounded as if her voice was being from somewhere simultaneously deep within and beyond the singer”.
It was an insight into the complicated and troubled life which she lived, and lived through her art and music.
Simone was a jazz musician, classical pianist, and a whole lot more. She was a young black woman in the 1960s who was intent on breaking down walls, barriers and prejudices. Her friends included neighbour Malcom X. While some of her most popular songs were covers such as I Love You, Porgy and I Put a Spell on You, civil rights activists canonized her as ‘The High Priestess of Soul’ for composing and singing the protest songs ‘Mississippi Goddam’ and ‘To Be Young, Gifted and Black’.
She gave them hope. Comedian Richard Pryor once said: “White people had Judy Garland — we had Nina.”
Life was never straight forward, for the woman born as Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina in 1933. She studied classical piano from an early age, which isolated her from friends. Though she had given recitals since age