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Jazz singer Nina Simone dies at 70.


ClarkW

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FYI. She wasn't a huge name or a headliner (I admit I had never heard of her), but a quick look at the size of her discography on allmusic.com shows she was no slouch.

 

http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30200-12293860,00.html

 

SINGER NINA SIMONE DIES

 

Legendary jazz and blues singer Nina Simone has died of natural causes at the age of 70.

 

In a statement, her manager said she died at her home near Marseille in southern France.

 

"It is with great regret and sadness that we announce the death of the legendary jazz singer, the great Nina Simone, who died this morning at her home in Carry-le-Rouet," a statement from Clifton Henderson said.

 

Simone, born in 1933 in the US state of North Carolina, was best known for her interpretation of My Baby Just Cares for Me.

 

She is also famous for her version of the Screamin' Jay Hawkins tune I Put A Spell on You.

 

The singer later to become known as the "High Priestess of Soul" was born February 21, 1933, as the sixth of seven children in a poor family, according to her website biography.

 

She started playing piano at age four and went on to study at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York to become a classical pianist.

 

But to help her family she did work as an accompanist and began singing while working in an Irish bar in Atlantic City.

 

She cut her first records in the late 1950s, going on to make a career not only as nightclub singer but pianist, arranger and composer.

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Here's a link to the NY Times obit. The NY Times only keeps the articles up for a few days before they head into "archival oblivion."

Nina Simone obituary

 

This obit mentions some more of her Civil Rights/Black Pride oriented material, including the song "Young, Gifted, and Black." She co-wrote that song with Weldon Irvine, Jr., who passed away about a year ago and was one of Marcus Miller's early mentors. You may have noticed a brief blurb in the April BP mag about how Marcus played at a tribute for Irvine back in January (57p was in attendance).

 

Really is sad.

:(

spreadluv

 

Fanboy? Why, yes! Nordstrand Pickups and Guitars.

Messiaen knew how to parlay the funk.

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Nina Simone is very associated with the Civil Rights movement...a noble thing.

 

Of even more importance, however, is how she brought together music from other genres into her discography.

 

She was a gifted classical pianist; racism ended that as a career. However, classical piano worked it's way into an amazing group of composers she covered.

 

Gershwin made her name, but she sang BeeGees, Beatles, Dylan, Pete Seeger, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Gian Carlo Menotti, Irving Berlin and even Fletcher Henderson....

 

All in the same smokey-voiced, personalized style...

 

To me, this is a mark of a true "world-citizen;" able to find meaningful music from varied cultures regardless of any color or language or belief line.

"Let's raise the level of this conversation" -- Jeremy Cohen, in the Picasso Thread.

 

Still spendin' that political capital far faster than I can earn it...stretched way out on a limb here and looking for a better interest rate.

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