Background Information

Nina Simone Referred to as the “singer of the Black Revolution”, Nina Simone was born February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. Her birth name was Eunice Kathleen Waymon. Her parents John D. Waylon and Mary Kate Waymon were religious and her father was the local Methodist Minister. Music was a large part of her childhood and she became so talented at the piano that she attended Julliard School of Music. She later tried to attend the Curtis Institute of Music, but was rejected because of racial prejudice. Simone began playing in clubs when she discovered out that one of the students that she was giving piano lessons too was making more money than she was playing in a bar in Atlantic City. She began to go by the name of Nina Simone because she feared her mother’s disapproval. Her music was often described as eclectic, powerful, and oozed her sexuality. Her first album was titled “Little Girl Blue”, her first song “I loves you Porgy” was first made popular by Billie Holiday. Unfortunately, she signed away her musical rights. She married Don Ross in 1958, but divorced and remarried Andy Stroud, with whom she had a daughter named Lisa Celeste in 1961. She divorced Stroud in 1970. Nina Simone was a large part of the civil rights and later black power movement, Her songs focused on solving racial prejudice. For example. “Mississippi Goddam” which was written after an Alabaman Baptist Church was bombed and a man was assassinated. Another tune “To be Young, Gifted, and Black” became an anthem for the black power movement with the line “Say it clear, say it loud, I am black, and I am proud!” She also produced songs that became feminist anthems. The 1970’s were a tough time for Simone when the IRS took her home, and her idols passed away. Because of all the racial issues, she moved to Barbados, Liberia, and eventually Switzerland. She had problems with con men taking her money, and was even suicidal at one point. Her career was never re-launched and she died in April 2003. She has composed over 500 songs and recorded over 60 albums. She was the first woman to win the Jazz Cultural Award and won “Woman of the Year” in 1966 for jazz. The National Association of Television and Radio Announcers also named her Female Jazz Singer of the Year in 1967.


       Billie Holiday was born Eleanora Fagan or Elinore Harris on April 7, 1915 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Sources are vague so it is unclear as to where her real birthplace and name were. She was raised in Baltimore to a teenage mother, and never knew who her father was. Some speculate that her father was Clarence Holiday, who later became a very successful musician. Her mother got married in 1920, but divorced the man only a few years later, so Billie never had a consistent father figure in her life. Billie turned to skipping school, and eventually ended up at a school for troubled African American girls. She found solace in music, and after moving with her mother to New York, she changed her name to Billie after the film star Billie Dove. John Hammond discovered Holiday at the age of eighteen, and she released the songs “ Your Mother’s Son- In- Law” and “Riffin’ the Scotch.” Her voice was often described as melancholy, and she was infamous for her use of distinctive phrasing. Her nickname “Lady Day” came from saxophonist Lester Young, and after touring with him for a year, she joined Artie Shaw becoming the first female African American vocalist to work with a white orchestra. She ended up leaving the orchestra due to racial and differences of opinion in terms of vocal artistry. She then began to perform at New York’s Café Society, wear her infamous craze of gardenias in her hair began. Many of her songs were about her relationships, which were often abusive. She married James Monroe in 1941, and began the horrible habits of alcoholism and drugs. In October 1945, her depression increased because of her mother’s death. She appeared with Louis Armstrong in the 1947 film New Orleans, but her abuse caused her to be arrested. Upon her release, she was not allowed to play in clubs and was later arrested again.The 1950s she spent touring and wrote an autobiography in 1956 called Lady Sings the Blues. She was later arrested for narcotics for a third time and died on July 17, 1959. Though she died before the Civil Rights movement, Holiday’s songs later became anthems of the movement.