Princess Noire
The Tumultuous Reign of Nina Simone
New York : Pantheon Books, [2010]
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: vi, 449 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
From the author of the acclaimed Dinah Washington biography Queen comes this complete account of the triumphs and difficulties of the brilliant and high-tempered Nina Simone. Her distinctive voice and music occupy a singular place in the canon of American song.
Tapping into newly unearthed material--including stories of family and career--Nadine Cohodas gives us a luminous portrait of the singer who was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, in 1933, one of eight children in a proud black family. We see her as a prodigiously talented child who is trained in classical piano through the charitable auspices of a local white woman. We witness her devastating disappointment when she is rejected by the Curtis Institute of Music--a dream deferred that would forever shape her self-image as well as her music. Yet by 1959--now calling herself Nina Simone--she had sung New York City's venerable Town Hall and was on her way.
As we watch Simone's exciting rise to stardom, Cohodas expertly weaves in the central factors of her life and career: her unique and provocative relationship with her audiences (she would "shush" them angrily; as a classically trained musician, she didn't believe in cabaret chat); her involvement in and contributions to the civil rights movement; her two marriages, including one of brief family contentment with police detective Andy Stroud, with whom she had her daughter, Lisa; the alienation from the United States that drove her to live abroad. Alongside these threads runs a darker one: Nina's increasing and sometimes baffling outbursts of rage and pain and her lifelong struggle to overcome a deep sense of personal injustice, which persisted even as she won international renown.
Princess Noire is a fascinating story, well told and thoroughly documented with intimate photos--a treatment that captures the passions of Nina's life.
Tapping into newly unearthed material--including stories of family and career--Nadine Cohodas gives us a luminous portrait of the singer who was born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, in 1933, one of eight children in a proud black family. We see her as a prodigiously talented child who is trained in classical piano through the charitable auspices of a local white woman. We witness her devastating disappointment when she is rejected by the Curtis Institute of Music--a dream deferred that would forever shape her self-image as well as her music. Yet by 1959--now calling herself Nina Simone--she had sung New York City's venerable Town Hall and was on her way.
As we watch Simone's exciting rise to stardom, Cohodas expertly weaves in the central factors of her life and career: her unique and provocative relationship with her audiences (she would "shush" them angrily; as a classically trained musician, she didn't believe in cabaret chat); her involvement in and contributions to the civil rights movement; her two marriages, including one of brief family contentment with police detective Andy Stroud, with whom she had her daughter, Lisa; the alienation from the United States that drove her to live abroad. Alongside these threads runs a darker one: Nina's increasing and sometimes baffling outbursts of rage and pain and her lifelong struggle to overcome a deep sense of personal injustice, which persisted even as she won international renown.
Princess Noire is a fascinating story, well told and thoroughly documented with intimate photos--a treatment that captures the passions of Nina's life.
Contents:
Called for and delivered : June 1898-February 1933 -- We knew she was a genius : March 1933-August 1941 -- Miss Mazzy : September 1941-August 1947 -- We have launched, where shall we anchor? : September 1947-May 1950 -- Prelude to a fugue : June 1950-May1954 -- The arrival of Nina Simone : June 1954-June 1956 -- Little girl blue : July 1956-December 1958 -- A fast rising star : 1959 -- Simone-ized : 1960 -- You can't let them humiliate you : January 1961-December 13, 1961 -- Respect : December 14, 1961-December 1962 -- Mississippi goddam : 1963 -- Don't let me be misunderstood : 1964 -- My skin is black : 1965 -- Images : 1966 -- My only groove is moods : 1967 -- Black gold : 1968 -- To be young, gifted and black : 1969 -- I have become more militant : 1970 -- Definite vibrations of pride : 1971 -- This ain't no Geraldine up here : 1972 -- Where my soul has gone : 1973-1976 -- I am not of this planet : 1977-1978 -- Loving me is not enough : 1979-1981 -- Fodder on her wings : 1982-1988 -- Nina's back-- again : 1989-1992 -- A single woman : 1993-1999 -- The final curtain : 2000-2003.
ISBN:
9780375424014
Availability | |||
---|---|---|---|
Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
BIOGRAPHY Simone, Nina | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Biography | In |
Includes filmography (page [417]), bibliographical references (pages [419]-423), and index.