Artist Review: Nina Simone

I have used "Band Review" for solo artists but this time it didn't feel right. There are a few things different about this review anyway, so we'll just go with it.

I worried about covering Burden of Sanity yesterday, because I had just written about Mental Health Awareness Month, and I wasn't sure if that band name might bother some who do have mental health issues. It was also the week that I wrote about Black History Month, though, and I really wanted to cover some black artists, and I was looking for anyone of color in my lists only not rap, because I wanted to like them and I often don't with the rap. And then I saw them, and their first track was "MLK", and I had just listened to Nina Simone's "Why" (The King of Love is Dead)", and it felt right.

I really had never known much about Nina Simone, but I had read somewhere the story of her writing "Mississippi Goddam", and it stuck with me.

I am not sure I have the story right. I thought I had read it was after she heard of the death of Medgar Evers, and then I couldn't find that account, and when I found another account it said it was after the church bombing in Birmingham. Still, what I remembered reading was that she went into her garage to try and build a gun, and when her husband found her he pointed out that her weapon was her music. Then she wrote the song.

I related to that. I try and hone my writing, and I want to use it for good, and whatever obstacles there are in the way of that, I am more likely to succeed at writing something powerful than building a gun. So as there was buzz going around about the Zoe Saldana movie, Simone got more in my mind, and yes, I needed to spend some time on her.

Coming to her via that route, I thought of her as so political and activist that it was surprising when I started listening. There are so many standards, and gentler fair, and even "Mississippi Goddam" does not sound as angry musically if you don't listen to the lyrics.

As I read more about her, it made more sense. She started out as an aspiring classical pianist. Denied a scholarship because of her race, she begin playing in clubs, making her a singer and getting her into other musical styles. There is such a strong musical foundation there, but there is also a good foundation, based on being held back early by prejudice and due to the time period she was going to see, to become political.

So she can call "Mississippi Goddam" a show tune, and it does fit that form, but it also references blues, and gives a pretty full picture of what was going on. And by calling it a show tune without a show, and putting that spoken into the song, she is both pulling in the audience, but pointing out the song's orphan state, there is that separation, and confirming that the story is not over. And she can pull from Langston Hughes and Lorraine Hansberry, and she can include classical, jazz, blues, and gospel, because she had the talent and she paid her dues.

She also paid financially for that. A Jet interview from 1986 says that her political songs got her boycotted, and she didn't regret that phase, but also at that point she wasn't being as political. You can argue about whether that's a legitimate choice, or whether that time period called for the same level of activism, but I admire her awareness. I admire that she understood what her art meant, and made conscious choices about what she was going to do with it.

I knew going in that I would not be able to go through everything three times. I could spend a lot of time listening and still just scratch the surface, and there is a lot of history, both musical and otherwise, to give it all context.

Also, there is no Twitter and Facebook account to link to. She is gone. You can find videos on Youtube and lots of songs on Spotify, but ultimately we are looking back here. So doing that, I listen and hear strength and warmth and determination. It was worth the time.

I didn't think I had anything special planned for my 150th artist reviewed, but I did.