Nina Simone - Rebellious (LP)

Nina Simone became an activist when she was very young. She discovered the piano at the age of three and gave her first concert when she was ten. Known at that time simply as Eunice Kathleen Waydon, she went on stage in the church of the small town of Tryon in North Carolina, where she had come into the world in 1933.

Her parents sat as close to her as possible, in the front row, but they were told to move to the back of the church and leave their seats for white people. Little Eunice was deeply affected by this humiliation. Her revolt against segregationism and her commitment to the civil rights movement found their roots in this event and were soon to be reinforced by another injustice. As a precocious and gifted pianist, she wished to devote herself to classical music. But the colour of her skin meant she was not allowed to go to New York’s prestigious Juilliard School of Music. She was not yet twenty, but institutional and everyday racism had already marked her for life.

Her future was decided when she auditioned to play in a restaurant. The owner agreed to employ her on the condition that she sang in addition to playing the piano. It was to be a revelation for this young woman and for all of the customers who were fortunate enough to hear her. To spare her fervent Christian mother the shame of learning that her daughter was playing the Devil’s music in venues of dubious reputation, she changed her name. She chose Nina (Spanish for “little”) and Simone, in honour of Simone Signoret, whom she had seen at the cinema in Casque d’Or.

And so it was, in this tiny restaurant, that the legend of one of the world’s greatest jazz artists was to begin…

-Jean Christophe Servant Rimbaud

Translated from the French by C. Hinton

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