Died yesterday at her home in France.

She was kind of crazy, but what a voice and a presence. I saw her perform about two years ago and it was wonderful. She had a sort of feather switch that she used for gesturing to the band and the audience.

it's a shame no one on here even bothered to reply & pay their respects to a fine woman such as Nina.

...R.I.P. Nina.

...& look at the bitch NOW!
Rupaul
"Wigstock:The Movie"

Hey Wonka.... check the rest of the boards... we were all shedding our tears...check out the RIP VIP section luvie.....

thanks Anna, hon, for letting me know this....i was getting a bit concerned.

...i went over to The Versailles Room & check the "R.I.P. VIP" section, but i didn't see anything about Nina(unless there's another "RIP VIP" section elsewhere around the forum....i'm still venturing around here), but i'll take your word for it, hon.

..again, thanks.

...& look at the bitch NOW!
Rupaul
"Wigstock:The Movie"

A really well written article on Nina:

http://www.chumba.com/_troublemakers2.htmm

I am not too familiar with Nina Simone. Isn't she the one who played Tess on the shmaltzy TV show "Touched By An Angel"?

I just got this 10 minute Felix Da Housecat mix of Nina's "Sinner Man". I'm speachless.

Nina was phenomenal for a lot of reasons. She was in that American cultural outlaw tradition that eventually found the French much more hospitable, and so her lengthy expat sojourn for the last part of her life. Her music was essentially built on intense emotional expression, wearing songs with her empathies and connecting directly with that lived part of experience. It was hard for anyone, I think, who would have heard her live to not be affected. She was also menacingly fierce, and often seemingly out of control, off the stage. I remember her innumerable calls to Baba Olatunji, the African drummer and choreographer (he also passed recently and THAT was a total blow out of a six hour funeral!), who I did work for for quite a few years, seeking permissions to use a song he wrote that she made part of her repertoir, 'Zungo'. She was immovably uncompromising, terse, adamant, and just plain tough to deal with. Abbey Lincoln carries on a speck of that same energy. And today's queens really owe a lot to Nina.

I hear the closest Nina Simone ever came to having a hit song was in 1965 when she sang a song called "I Put A Spell On You". This song was written by an eccentric saxaphone player named Jalacy J. Hawkins. This saxaphone player played in the house band of a strip club where my mother danced in when I was a kid. All I can remember was this dude, Jalacy, complaining every time the song came on the jukebox that Nina Simone had ripped him off because he never received a dime in royalties for it...

I'm just getting up (still drunk). You two are killing me a little too softly a little too early.
first:
Seven, You worked for Olatunji? I'm gagging. And he just died? Such a loss. "Drums of Passion" changed the world!

and Joel:
I lived in Buffalo for 6 months so I know what you say is true. What an incredible place. You go into a bar and there is "Leadbelly" or "Blind Lemon Someone Or Other" just hanging out getting drunk. And your mother was a stripper? And Screamin' J. Hawkins?

wait...
I need some more coffee!

LOL.. no, you don't need more coffee, you need another drink!!!

I've never seen Blind Lemon Jefferson in buffalo (I doubt that if i did he would have seen me anyway). Besides, the only thing they got here in buffalo are rancid tasting chicken wings. As far as Screamin Jay Hawkins goes, I knew him in Paris when I was a little kid and my mother was dancing there. Screamin' Jay used to wear a cape and jump outa a coffin as part of his act. He could have been a great opera singer, but he liked toking up (wacky weed, he called it) and snorting sterno too much. As far as Nina Simon goes, I admit I sometimes get her mixed up with that other big mouth trouble maker who lived in Paris around the same time and never had a hit song either. You know, the one who made purring sounds like a kitten and claimed she was half chinese or something...

I am sorry for you that you seemed to have missed the true beauty and talent of Miss Simone. What a life. And she had every reason to be hating on everyone after the way the record industry treated her. I am sorry she wasn't able to get over it and learn to enjoy life more. Her bitterness ate her alive. I worshipped her music in the sixties. What promise! I suggest you read her autobigraphy. It reveals a lot more about the person.

Eartha Kitt was and STILL IS brilliant! She and Nina, while very different stylistically, both survived a through a lot of shit.


[This message was edited by Miss Understood on 07-14-03 at 12:18 AM.]

Okay already, so maybe I did get Nina and Eartha confused with Melba Moore... sorry

[This message was edited by Joel on 07-14-03 at 05:15 PM.]

Nina Simone, Eartha Kitt, Melba Moore, Hattie McDaniel, Gary Coleman, who can tell them apart? They should make 'em wear tags!

And let's not forget Roberta Flack...

Daddy, I ran Baba's business with him for about nine years in the 90's. It really transformed my life in many many ways. I have endless stories about that adventure. He 'went over to the great majority' -as they say- April 6. The cause was terminal stages of diabetes. Drums of Passion was recorded in 1958/9. Everyone from Dylan to Santanna had their musical heads whacked by it. Closer to home, Nina, Coltrane, Abbey Lincoln, Max Roach, Joan Baez, Mickey Hart, Jerry Garcia, -all fell under the spell. Baba and Nina had very similar temperaments when it came to the music business. And, well, Olatunji was a Nigerian, and African businessmen have a TOTALLY different set of business ethics let me tell you. Olatunji fared a little better recognition-wise than Nina, having won a Grammy (with Hart, Airto and Flora et.al.) for a world music collaboration called Planet Drum. And in '98 he was nominated again for his own release on the Chesky label, Love Drum Talk, which I liked a lot because it was recorded 'live' in a church on 22nd Street with a small ensemble including Della Flack, Roberta's sister. Baba's and Nina's music both went straight for the emotional touchstone. Nina was tied in to the Black Arts movement of the '60's from the beginning and Olatunji was definitely a major flavor in it. I should make you a copy of a totally obscure Olatunji recording that was only ever pressed as 1000 cassettes - amazing traditional meditation music. You can get his whole discography ( sans the usual roster of indies and collaborations ) in a box set produced by Bear Records, a mail-house label in Berlin. It has a book with great photos, and gems like a single written for Jackie-O that was performed at a Democratic fundraiser in the early '60's. Ask Bobby what an Olatunji performance was like, I remember Bobby in the audience for a benefit for the UN Hunger project somewhere around '97.

[This message was edited by seven on 07-14-03 at 05:14 PM.]

[This message was edited by seven on 07-14-03 at 05:18 PM.]

[This message was edited by seven on 07-14-03 at 05:39 PM.]

I am listening to the CD you made for me right now. It's incredible, thank you so much. Chi Chi especially loves the "Jackie Kennedy" song. Also thanks for all the info. I didn't know any of that. I, of course, have "Drums Of Passion" and "Planet Drum" but didn't know much else.
thanks thanks thanks

I knew Chi Chi would love the Jackie-O song. So imperial. Probably the only song in existence about American Royalty. I just found out the box set from Bear Records has been discontinued, which means all of that material will once again sink back in to obscurity the way it was since 1964. Someone should do a box for Nina, totally.