Song Saturday, Nina Simone

She was born Eunice Waymon into poverty, in Tryon, North Carolina the sixth of seven children. She was  a child prodigy played who played piano at the age of four. With the help of her music teacher, who set up a charitable fund for her she trained as a classical pianist in New York.

She supplemented her poor families income by working as an accompanist. In the summer of 1954 she took a job in an Irish bar in Atlantic City, New Jersey and was told her she had to sing as well play. Thus ther girl who had spent years training as a classical pianist began her career as a singer. She changed her name into Nina ("little one") Simone ("from the French actress Simone Signoret").

It didn’t take her long before she was performing at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival. From the very beginning of her career, her repertoire included jazz, gospel spirituals, classical music, folk songs of diverse origin, blues, pop, songs from musicals and opera, African chants as well as her own compositions. She can and has sung most things but always in her own unmistakable style.