Born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone
(1933-2003) began her musical life playing classical piano. A child
prodigy, she wanted a career on the concert stage, but when the
Curtis Institute of Music rejected her, the devastating
disappointment compelled her to change direction. She turned to
popular music and jazz but never abandoned her classical roots or
her intense ambition. By the age of twenty six, Simone had sung at
New York City's venerable Town Hall and was on her way. Tapping
into newly unearthed material on Simone's family and career, Nadine
Cohodas paints a luminous portrait of the singer, highlighting her
tumultuous life, her innovative compositions, and the prodigious
talent that matched her ambition.
With precision and empathy, Cohodas weaves the story of Simone's
contentious relationship with audiences and critics, her outspoken
support for civil rights, her two marriages and her daughter, and,
later, the sense of alienation that drove her to live abroad from
1993 until her death. Alongside these threads runs a more troubling
one: Simone's increasing outbursts of rage and pain that signaled
mental illness and a lifelong struggle to overcome a deep sense of
personal injustice.