The Life of Nina Simone

This week in class we watched a Netflix original on Nina Simone a singer/ pianist from the blues and jazz era of music. Nina Simone changed her name once she started performing, it was previously Eunice Waymon. When she was younger she started to play the piano when someone took interest in her and started to give her lessons. Waymon started by playing classical music and pieces written by Bach, Mozart and more. Since she was young, she dreamed of being a classical pianist. She went to college for a few years until her money ran out and she had to go and find a job to help support her parents. Waymon found a job playing piano at bars during the evening that was enough to support her family. However, the owner said that if she wanted to keep up the job, she would have to start singing while playing. That is when Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone. She didn’t want her mother to know what she was doing so she changed her name. Simone started singing and playing at bars all around town to support her family. Once she made a name for herself, she started to use her music to voice the problems her and others were facing. Simone used her musical career to speak up about the problems that African Americans were facing on the daily. In the beginning of the Netflix documentary on Nina Simone, she was asked what freedom meant. Simone answered that everyone had their own ideas of what freedom was. It was hard to hear the question was does freedom mean to you because for some people, it’s asking them to explain something that they have never had. To Simone, freedom was no fear. When Simone meant Andrew Stroud, she knew that he was the one for her. Stroud left the police force to manage Simone’s career because he believed in her. Stroud put everything into Simone’s career, he managed her and helped her write and produce some songs even. Without him, who knows if Simone’s career would have taken off like it did. Simone sang because she belonged in the music business, she used her talents to convey powerful messages that everyone could understand through her lyrics.