Where am I going with these comments? I don't know. Horne) but I can see that she had much more force and emotion in her work starting in the 1960s, and she seemed a more confident performer, too, less 'coached' and more herself. Horne's recordings of the 1940s and 1950s (and that probably says more about me than it does about Ms.

Horne struggled and raged over that conflict, and later disdained the 'pretty' recordings and film appearances of her more youthful years. As someone who's white and a man, I can never know what it's like for a black woman to try to succeed and be recognized as an artistic force in herself, as opposed to being someone 'acceptable' to mainstream (i.e.

Simone's initial success as an 'exotic' artist for primarily white audiences reminds me of the early career of my favorite black female artist (at least, of the era prior to the 1970s), Lena Horne. Simone's life and the prejudice and struggles she faced teach us lessons that we still need to learn, today.Īlso, your reference to Ms. But I think it would be good to give this documentary a try. Her 'Young, Gifted and Black' is a justified war cry (listen to how she hits the word 'Black' every time!) but with shades of hope and humor, too.Īs I've mentioned in the past, due to my day job as a therapist, I have a difficult time watching films that deal with trauma and suffering. Her 'Little Girl Blue' is contemplative, sad but also determined. Her performing style is quite intense, both in times of quiet and in times of force. Thank you for the links you appended to your review. Simone but had never heard her music before today. That triumph of What Happened, Miss Simone? is that it presents these sometimes unpleasant realities without ever diminishing the artistic legacy of this legendary woman with the soul-searing voice who was rightfully dubbed, The High Priestess of Soul. Nina Simone's genius lie in her ability to make poetry out of the contradictory and confounding ugliness and beauty that was her life.

In the midst of this was a woman battling a mental illness, a woman in an abusive relationship who visited that same violence onto her daughter. She opened up about her frustration in knowing that the more she sang about her personal truth as a black woman, the smaller her audiences would grow. She sang about being a black woman of financial privilege who had to put on a smile and entertain while all around her African-American figures of hope were being killed off, one by one. She was sharing the dejection of a sensitive, impressionable child told by the country of her birth that she was somehow less valuable, less beautiful, because of her skin.

Nina simone discography rar