Nina Simone
Wikimp3 information about the music of Nina Simone. On our website we have 70 albums and 70 collections of artist Nina Simone. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Nina Simone represents Jazz genres.
Biography
[Edit]Nina Simone was one of the most gifted vocalists of her generation, and also one of the most eclectic. Simone was a singer, pianist, and songwriter who bent genres to her will rather than allowing herself to be confined by their boundaries; her work swung back and forth between jazz, blues, soul, classical, R&B, pop, gospel, and world music, with passion, emotional honesty, and a strong grasp of technique as the constants of her musical career.
Nina Simone was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21, 1933. Her mother, Mary Kate Waymon, was a Methodist minister, and her father, John Divine Waymon, was a handyman who moonlighted as a preacher. Eunice displayed a precocious musical talent at the age of three when she started picking out tunes on the family's piano, and a few years later she was playing piano at her mother's Sunday church services. Mary Kate worked part time as a housemaid, and when her employers heard Eunice play, they arranged for her to study with pianist Muriel Mazzanovich, who tutored Eunice in the classics, focusing on Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, and Schubert. After graduating at the top of her high school class, Eunice received a grant to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City, and applied for enrollment at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. However, Eunice was denied admission at the Curtis Institute under mysterious circumstances, despite what was said to be a stellar audition performance; Eunice would insist that her race was the key reason she was rejected.
Determined to support herself as a musician, in 1954 Eunice applied for a job playing piano at the Midtown Bar & Grill in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Eunice was told she would have to sing as well as play jazz standards and hits of the day. While she had no experience as a vocalist, Eunice faked it well enough to get the job, and she adopted a stage name, Nina Simone — Nina from a pet name her boyfriend used, and Simone from the French film star Simone Signoret. The newly christened Nina Simone was a quick study as a singer, and her unique mixture of jazz, blues, and the classics soon earned her a loyal audience. Within a few years, Simone was a headliner at nightclubs all along the East Coast, and in 1957 she came to the attention of Syd Nathan, the mercurial owner of the influential blues and country label King Records. Nathan offered Simone a contract with his jazz subsidiary, Bethlehem Records, and the two were soon butting heads as the strong-willed Simone insisted on choosing her own material. Simone won out, and in 1958, she enjoyed a major hit with her interpretation of "I Loves You Porgy" from Porgy and Bess. The single rose to the Top 20 of the pop charts, but like many of Nathan's signings, Simone did not see eye to eye with him about business details (particularly after she discovered she'd signed away her right to royalties upon receiving her advance), and by 1959 she had signed a new deal with Colpix Records.
Simone's reputation as a powerful live performer had only grown by this time, and her second album for Colpix was the first of many live recordings she would release, Nina Simone at Town Hall. Simone's live performances gave her more room to show off her classical piano influences, and her albums for Colpix reflected an intelligent taste in standards, pop songs, and supper club blues, and while she didn't enjoy another American hit on the level of "I Loves You Porgy," her recordings of "Trouble in Mind" and "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" both entered the pop charts as singles.
In 1964, Simone left Colpix to sign a new deal with Philips, and the move coincided with a shift in the themes of her music. While always conscious of the ongoing struggle for civil rights, Simone often avoided explicit political messages in her material; as she later wrote, "How can you take the memory of a man like Medgar Evers and reduce all that he was to three and a half minutes and a simple tune?" But as the fight for racial equality became a more pressing issue in America, Simone began addressing issues of social justice in her music, penning songs such as "Mississippi Goddam," "Four Women," and "Young, Gifted and Black," the latter inspired by the work of her friend and mentor Lorraine Hansberry. Simone also enjoyed a British hit single in 1964 with "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," and while the record didn't fare as well in the United States, a year later the Animals would take the song to the pop charts on both sides of the Atlantic. Simone would next hit the British charts with her cover of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I Put a Spell on You," which also rose to the Top 30 in the States.
In 1967, after recording seven albums for Philips, Simone struck a new deal with RCA Records, and while her first album for her new label, Nina Simone Sings the Blues, was a straightforward collection of blues standards, her subsequent work for RCA found Simone focusing on contemporary pop, rock, and soul material, much of which dealt with topical themes and progressive philosophies (1969's To Love Somebody featured no fewer than three Bob Dylan tunes). Simone's 1968 cover of "Ain't Got No/I Got Life" (from the musical Hair) was a major chart hit in the U.K., and Simone would focus her energies on her European career when she left the United States in 1970, initially settling in Barbados and divorcing her husband and manager. Simone's exile was prompted by her increasing disillusionment with American politics, as well as her refusal to pay income taxes as a protest against the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, though recording sessions and concert dates would occasionally bring her back to the United States. In 1974, Simone released her last album for RCA, It Is Finished, and spent the next several years traveling the world and playing occasional concerts; she would not return to the recording studio until 1978, when she recorded the album Baltimore at a studio in Belgium for Creed Taylor's CTI label. (That same year, Simone was arrested and charged for her non-payment of taxes from 1971 to 1973.) It would be another four years until Simone would record again, cutting Fodder on My Wings for a Swiss label in 1982.
After several more years of travel, Simone released a live album through the American VPI label, 1985's Live & Kickin, and another concert set, Let It Be Me, was issued by Verve in 1987, a year that saw Simone enjoying a major career resurgence in Europe; her 1959 recording of "My Baby Just Cares for Me" was used in a British television commercial for Chanel No. 5 perfume, and the song subsequently became a hit, rising to the Top Ten of the U.K. pop charts. In 1989, Simone was invited by Pete Townshend to sing the song "Fast Food" on his concept album The Iron Man, which also featured John Lee Hooker. Simone's autobiography I Put a Spell on You was published in 1990, and after a well-received United States concert tour, she was signed by Elektra Records, which released the album A Single Woman in 1993.
In 1995, Simone found herself in the news after she fired a gun at one of her neighbors during an argument; she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which was said to be the cause of several episodes of erratic behavior in her later years. Simone continued to perform live in Europe and the United States up until the summer of 2002, when it was discovered she had breast cancer. Simone's battle with the disease came to a close on April 21, 2003 in Carry-le-Rouet, France. Only a few days earlier, Simone had received an honorary degree from the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, the same school that had rejected her in 1953.
Title: Saga All Stars: My Baby Just Cares For Me / Selected Singles 1959-1962
Artist: Nina Simone
Genre: Jazz
Title: The Miseducation Of Eunice Waymon
Artist: Nina Simone, Lauryn Hill, Amerigo Gazaway
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rap, Soul, Funk
Title: To Be Free: The Nina Simone Story 1957 - 1968 (CD1)
Artist: Nina Simone
Title: The Very Best Of Nina Simone Sugar In My Bowl (CD2)
Artist: Nina Simone
Genre: Blues, Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Title: The Perfect Jazz Collection CD17 (Sings The Blues)
Artist: Nina Simone
Genre: Jazz, World Music, Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Tribute To Leonard Cohen - Songs Of Love And Love (Single)
Artist: Nina Simone
Genre: Folk Rock, World Music, Folk
Collections
Title: If I Loved You I Would Say So
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Pop
Title: God Bless the Girls!
Genre: Pop
Title: United States of Jazz
Genre: Jazz
Title: Supperclub Seduction
Genre: Electronica
Title: Tonight Show: Soul Legends
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Pop
Title: Secret Weapons, Pt. 2
Genre: Electronica, Dancefloor, Dance Pop
Title: Smash Soul & R&B Hits, Vol 1
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul
Title: Mixtape: Happy Jazz
Genre: Jazz
Title: The Jazz Vocalists Sing Swing. Music for Dancers
Genre: Jazz
Title: Cool Jazz Summer Breeze
Genre: Jazz
Title: Soul Bossanova Bonanza
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul
Title: Flying Funk
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul
Title: Jazz Compilation Vol.2
Genre: Jazz
Title: The Great Lyricists - Dorothy Fields
Genre: Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Great Ladies Of Jazz Vol 1
Genre: Jazz
Title: Ultimate Jazz Ladies Vol 7
Genre: Jazz
Title: Encyclopedia of Jazz, Vol. 2
Genre: Jazz
Title: Encyclopedia of Jazz, Vol. 1
Genre: Jazz
Title: Classic Jazz Giants
Genre: Jazz
Title: American Jazz - Irving Berlin Songs
Genre: Jazz
Title: Jazz Ballads
Genre: Jazz
Title: Modern Art of Music: Woman in Blues
Genre: Jazz
Title: Modern Art of Music: Woman In Blues
Genre: Jazz
Title: Music & Highlights: Woman in Blues
Genre: Jazz
Title: The Jazz Story - Woman in Blues
Genre: World Music
Title: Best of Jazz Songs
Genre: Jazz
Title: The Best Jazz Ever
Genre: Jazz
Title: Song Street, Vol. 11
Title: Song Mix (2)
Title: The Best of Smooth Jazz, Vol.1
Genre: Jazz
Title: Tea For Two - Jazz Masters
Genre: Jazz
Title: Music Encyclopedia of Jazz
Genre: Jazz
Title: Valentine's Day (Love Songs)
Title: Song Street, Vol. 1
Title: Verve Unmixed Christmas
Genre: Jazz
Title: Song Mix (10)
Genre: Pop
Title: Gospel Christmas 2012 (Extended)
Genre: Gospel
Title: Jazz Compilation Vol.3
Genre: Jazz
Title: Jazz Vocals
Genre: Jazz
Title: Music Encyclopedia of Blues
Title: Music & Highlights: The Kings Of Blues
Genre: Blues
Title: Great American Songwriters
Genre: Pop
Title: Verve Unmixed: The First Ladies
Genre: Jazz
Title: Your Birthday Present - Song Mix - 6
Genre: Pop
Title: Song Corner: Famous Singers, Vol. 4 (Remastered)
Genre: Pop
Title: Verve Unmixed 3 (iTunes Version)
Genre: Jazz
Title: Smash Jazz & Blues Hits Vol 2
Genre: Jazz
Title: Greatest Blues Singers
Genre: Jazz
Title: Blues for the Buck
Genre: Blues
Title: Ultimate Jazz Ladies, Vol. 5
Genre: Jazz
Title: Queens of Jazz, Vol. 10
Genre: Jazz
Title: Jazz & Blues Divas
Title: The Rogers & Hart Songbook: We'll Have Manhattan
Genre: Jazz
Title: Song Corner: Famous Singers, Vol. 5 (Remastered)
Genre: Pop
Title: Jazz Compilation Vol.1
Genre: Jazz
Title: Music Encyclopedia of Crooners & Divas
Genre: Pop
Title: Super Tracks & Great Singers Vol. 11
Genre: Electronica, Dancefloor, Dance Pop
Title: The Jazz Story - Blue Nocturne
Genre: Jazz
Title: Lady Sings the Blues
Genre: Blues
Title: Soul
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul
Title: DANCING HOUSE SELECTION
Genre:
Title: 100 MOST BEAUTIFUL LOVE SONGS CD 4
Genre: Pop
Title: Blues Story CD 6
Genre: Blues
Title: Blues Story CD 17
Genre: Blues
Featuring albums
Title: The Future Is Unwritten (Music from the Film)
Artist: Joe Strummer
Genre: Rock, Rock & Roll, Punk, Reggae, Roots Reggae, Dub, Alternative, Songwriter/Lyricist, Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: ...And Then You Shoot Your Cousin
Artist: The Roots
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Rap, Rock, Alternative
Title: Et soudain, tout le monde me manque (Musique originale)
Artist: Nathan Johnson
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: I Love You Phillip Morris (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Artist: Nick Urata
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Canto do Paje (Song of the Shaman)
Artist: María Bethania / Maria Bethania
Genre: World Music, Latin
Title: The Day I Saw Your Heart (Music from the Motion Picture)
Artist: Nathan Johnson
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: The Future Is Unwritten
Artist: The Future Is Unwritten (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Genre: Rock
Title: Miami Vice Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (U.S. Version)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Rock, Alternative Rock, Pop, Theatre/Soundtrack, Indie
Title: Rewound & Reworked - Jazz Remixes Vol. 2
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Electronica, Jazz, Dancefloor
Title: Crazy, Stupid, Love: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: The Intouchables
Artist: The Intouchables (Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Sex And The City: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Song One (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Late Night Tales: Nils Frahm
Artist: Nils Frahm
Genre: Ambient, Downtempo, Electronica, Industrial, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Classical
Title: Love the Coopers (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack