September 12, 2010

• THE ETERNAL SONGSTRESS: A TRIBUTE TO NINA SIMONE

   

  Nina Simone’s gifted regal spirit has left this earth, but her music will be with us here forever. Her music plays eternally in my head, heart, and soul. Nina lives forever inside my FM mix on Les Chanteuses Africaines...

  I adored Nina Simone. This column is belated because mourning Nina took some time...Please excuse my delay. I thank all of you who have patiently awaited this tribute.

  Losing Nina physically meant losing so much more than a recording artist. Nina was a political rebel, a social activist, a protest singer, a song stylist, a composer, an arranger, and a pianist. Nina’s musical talents were universal. She masterfully composed, played, and performed jazz, blues, gospel, folk, pop, and classical music.

  Nina was so much more than a musical performer. She was a bold and brave political warrior. I was born in 1963. In 1963, Nina gave birth to a classic protest song called “Mississippi Goddam!” She penned it to rebel against the racist murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the racist bombing of four black baby girls, inside a church, one Sunday morning, by Klansmen in Alabama. She also crafted the eclectic classic “Pirate Jenny” about a heroic haunted African slave ship that avenges its black human cargo ashore. In “Go to Hell”, she makes angry damnation artistic jubilation. In her gospel/folk signature tune, “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free”, she makes real longing lyrical and misery melodius.

  My favorite Nina Simone song is also a protest song. I love African dance. A perfect evening would be watching Alvin Ailey’s dance troupe perform, followed by a four star soul food dinner. Black music, black movement, and black cuisine are all sacred magic. As a young child in Chicago, one of the first such black dance events I recall attending featured a masterful sister who danced a sultry solo to Nina’s sensual womanist anthem “Four Women”. I fell in love with that dancer, that song, and Nina simultaneously.

  In 1969, Nina renounced the USA due to racism and became a global traveler. In 1978, she was arrested for protesting Vietnam and the IRS. In 1987 she was the star of the soundtrack for the film “Point of No Return”. In 1993, Nina retired in France.

  Nina was a musical genius. She was gifted and made all of her gifts art. She made her complex artistry completely political. Her other classic protest songs included a eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Why the King of Love is Dead”. In 1972, inspired by the renowned work of her sista friend Lorraine Hansberry, Nina penned “Young, Gifted, and Black”. This song became the consummate black commencement ceremony anthem. In this classic song, she set African pride, rebel pomp, and revolutionary circumstance to a timeless melody.

  Nina physically departed on April, 21, 2003. She was 70. She died in her beloved home in southern France. Nina was born “Eunice Waymon” on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. She became a pianist at age 6. At age 10, she performed her first formal recital, while her parents were forced to sit far in the rear because they were black. Nina never forgot this traumatic racist abuse that left a permanent emotional scar. Nina bore that scar as a warrior mark that fueled her social activism for the rest of her life.

  In 1950, Nina attended Juilliard in NYC. In 1954, she adopted Nina Simone as her stage name and she became an Atlantic City star as a piano woman and lounge singer at the Midtown Bar and Grill. Nina became a national star when she released her first album in 1958.

  Nina’s vocal magic transformed many classic covers. She took Screaming Jay Hawkin’s spooky song called “I Put a Spell on You” and made it sultry and seductive. She took the Beatles’ rebel pop tune “Revolution” and made it even more political and soulful. In her superb rendition of “Mr. Bojangles”, she actually seems to channel the spirit of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson as no other singer ever has. In her superb version of “I Loves You Porgy” she channels the collective spirits and pains of our raped and enslaved African mothers...

  Nina’s deep and raspy voice was raw, moody, and unpredictable. For us serious musicologists and music collectors, Nina presents a very special challenge. She never sang any song the same way twice. Thus, hunting a specific version of her extensive recordings is still a uniquely thrilling adventure...

  Like her multiple musical talents, Nina’s physical beauty was awesomely regal. Her clothing and hair styles were authentically African. Her face was like a perfect African sculpture or mask. Nina was a Queen. Everything about her was Nubian royalty.

   

   

  Dear Sista Queen Nina: 

  I can never say goodbye....You put a spell on all of us. We are enchanted still and we will be so for all eternity... 

   

   

  Four Women 

  by Nina Simone

  My skin is black 
  My arms are long 
  My hair is woolly 
  My back is strong 
  Strong enough to take the pain 
  inflicted again and again 
  What do they call me? 
  My name is AUNT SARAH 
  My name is Aunt Sarah

  My skin is yellow 
  My hair is long 
  Between two worlds 
  I do belong 
  My father was rich and white 
  He forced my mother late one night 
  What do they call me? 
  My name is SAFFRONIA 
  My name is Saffronia

  My skin is tan 
  My hair is fine 
  My hips invite you 
  my mouth like wine 
  Whose little girl am I? 
  Anyone who has money to buy 
  What do they call me? 
  My name is SWEET THING 
  My name is Sweet Thing

  My skin is brown 
  my manner is tough 
  I'll kill the first mother I see 
  My life has been too rough 
  I'm awfully bitter these days 
  Because my parents were slaves 
  What do they call me? 
  My name is PEACHES

   

   

  ---

  Any essential collection of Nina’s tunes will include the following:

  FOUR WOMEN 

  MISSISSIPPI GODDAM! 

  REVOLUTION 

  WHY THE KING OF LOVE IS DEAD 

  TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED, & BLACK 

  I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE 

  PIRATE JENNY 

  I PUT A SPELL ON YOU 

  BLACK IS THE COLOR 

  LITTLE GIRL BLUE 

  DAY & NIGHT 

  THE LAZIEST GAL IN TOWN 

  I WANT A LITTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL 

  BALM IN GILEAD 

  MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME 

  MR. BOJANGLES 

  DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO 

  BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN 

  I LOVES YOU PORGY 

  SUNDAY IN SAVANNAH 

  BACKLASH BLUES 

  GO TO HELL 

  RICH GIRL 

  EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE 

  THAT’S ALL I WANT FROM YOU 

  HERE COMES THE SUN 

  O-O-H CHILD 

  THE LOOK OF LOVE 

  HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS 

  FOR ALL WE KNOW 

  AIN’T GOT NO/I GOT LIFE 

  TO LOVE SOMEBODY 

  HE NEEDS ME 

  WILD IS THE WIND 

  HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN 

  SINCE I FELL FOR YOU 

  MY WAY

   

  For more information on Nina Simone, read her classic autobiography:
   

  “I Put a Spell on You” 

  http://www.amazon.com/Put-Spell-You-Autobiography-Simone/dp/0306813270/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1284267384&sr=1-1

   

  
  

  • 12:58 AM
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