I was driving home from Rhode Island Sunday, when I paused the radio at WGBH. A terrific audio essay was on, hosted by Nina Simone’s daughter.
Nina Simone was among the most important voices of the sixties for me, right up there with MLK Jr., JFK, and Joan Baez. Her blend of jazz, blues, and folk was underpinned by powerful emotion. I think I had all her albums back then. A classically trained pianist, Simone had a distinctive voice that was full of caring and pain, even though her personality was often described as abrasive. (And as far as that goes, she had her reasons.)
The best thing about the WGBH broadcast was the selection of the songs. Brought back memories. I was also interested to learn about her connections to Langston Hughes, Odetta, and Lorraine Hansberry.
Hear some of her music at NPR.
Photograph of Nina Simone and her daughter, indiewire.com
Suzanne's Mom's Blog 
I have only heard a very few songs by Nina Simone, but the few I’ve heard, I really loved. I blogged about one, “Mississippi Goddamn,” and there was another–it was on an NPR show that I heard it–that was equally excellent; I wrote its name down, but I can’t locate it right now …
Maybe “Four Women”? That packs a wallop and made me ponder when it first came out. There seemed to be important messages in it, and I wasn’t sure I was getting them all. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Women_%28song%29
No, it wasn’t that song. I’ll see if I can find my notes.
That’s a great picture of her. I love Nina too. There’s a bit of a controversy right now over the actress they’ve chosen to play in her bio-pic.
I saw something about that. Is she wrong for the part or is the problem that the family wasn’t consulted? It would be a juicy part, I think!
The issue they have is that the actress they cast is a light skinned woman with less of the “African” features that Nina Simone was so famous for. People believe that Nina’s look was a big part of what made her so distinctive; that she wasn’t white washed. So they think it’s offensive that a movie about her wouldn’t honor that by casting an actress that looks more like her.
There’s actually a petition out there somewhere that people are signing too.
Very interesting! Thanks.