Nina Simone Biographie ANGLAIS

        Nina Simone

Here is the information about the documentary. Later, we will develop on Nina’s life and her relationship to music related to her values and beliefs

Nina Simone & Me with Laura Mvula BBC Documentary 2016

British singer Laura Mvula is evoked in New York, to retrace the path of the American singer known in «Nina Simone and me». This program follows Laura and tells the story of Simone’s musical career. Laura also performs some of Nina’s songs such as «Little Girl Blue», «Sinnerman» and «Feeling Good».

During her trip to Greenwich Village, Laura meets the guitarist Al Shackman who was Nina’s friend and musical director, she also meets the soul singer and activist Camille Yarbrough, who tells how she was inspired by Nina. A great moment of emotion!

In addition to being a legendary figure of jazz, blues and soul music. We also see that Nina is committed to causes, to defending values like the civil rights of blacks, and these songs speak for themselves with «Mississippi Goddam» and «Young, Gifted & Black».

Here is his more precise biography and some musical examples to illustrate the events.

This is the story of a little girl who had the gift of absolute ear, a little girl who will make her wounds springs and her faults weapons. « It is the story of a young girl who invents her own discipline and measure, which is often excessive... »

« I will die at the age of seventy, because after that it is only pain, » Nina Simone predicted. Even though her life was not a fairy tale, this little girl, who became an old lady, honored and applauded, before dying in 2003, plunged into solitude, eaten away by cancer and mental disorders called « bipolar. »

As a child, her dream was to become a classical pianist, a great concertist. As a teenager, she even managed to seduce the jury of her audition at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. But they refuse her admission because Nina is black skin. She will keep resentment of it all her life.
To earn a living, she plays at night in night clubs in Atlantic City. Soft jazz, «Cocktail music». 
After becoming a jazz singer, Nina Simone recorded her first album in 1959. It features a cover of «I Love You, Porgy» and a light ballad, «My Baby Just Cares for Me », a standard created in 1930 in the musical «Woopee»