by Alan Light
“gave you back experience”: James Baldwin, “The Black Scholar Interviews James Baldwin” [1973], in Conversations with James Baldwin, ed. Fred L. Standley and Louis H. Pratt (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989), 155.
“White people had Judy Garland”: “100 Greatest Singers of All Time.”
“When you saw her in person”: Stanley Crouch, interview by Liz Garbus, May 16, 2014.
“Anything musical made me quiver”: liner notes to Black Gold, RCA Victor, 1970, LP.
“Actually, what I do”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, October 31, 1989.
“She didn’t copy anybody”: George Wein, interview by Liz Garbus, March 14, 2014.
“To me, she was the quintessential woman”: Alicia Keys, liner notes to Nina Simone: Forever Young, Gifted and Black, RCA/Legacy, 2006, CD.
“Nina Simone, she’s sort of like the ghost”: Zeba Blay, “Gugu Mbatha-Raw on ‘Beyond the Lights,’ Pressures of Fame, and the Power of Self-Love,” Essence.com, November 12, 2014, http://www.essence.com/2014/11/12/gugu-mbatha-raw-beyond-lights-pressures-fame-and-power-self-love.
“Nina Simone, I used to cross paths with her”: “Read Bob Dylan’s Complete, Riveting MusiCares Speech,” Rolling Stone, February 9, 2015.
“Nina Simone said it’s an artist’s duty”: Jessica Goldstein, “How Nina Simone Inspired John Legend’s Oscar Speech,” Think Progress.org, February 23, 2015, http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/02/23/3625855/artists-duty-nina-simone-inspired-john-legend-commons-oscar-speech/.
“Nina [was] great at that”: Karu F. Daniels, “Bold Soul: Meshell Ndegeocello Rocks On,” NBCNews.com, March 26, 2015, http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/meshell-ndegeocello-rocks-n329636.
“Fifty years after her prominence”: Salamishah Tillet, “Nina Simone’s Time Is Now, Again,” New York Times, June 22, 2015.
“at this critical moment”: Syreeta McFadden, “The Fierce Urgency of Nina Simone Now,” Nation, July 2, 2015.
“I really thought that this planet”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“For films or interviews”: Gerrit De Bruin, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“Of course, all the time”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, June 12, 1989.
CHAPTER 1
“I was born a child prodigy”: Nina Simone (NS), interview clip, 1984, in Nina Simone Live at Ronnie Scott’s London, Quantum Leap, 2003, DVD.
“It was not as rigidly segregated”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“One of my brothers’ friends”: Ibid.
“a wooden house”: Frances (Waymon) Fox, interview by Stephen Cleary, January 3, 1990.
“You went out”: Ibid.
“My first conscious memory”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 7, 1980.
“Momma never seemed to worry”: Ibid.
“My daddy putting me on his knee”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“His whole life was playing”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, 1990.
“Daddy loved the ‘St. Louis Blues’ ”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“I would take him for a walk”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“He was energetic”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“There was a lot of conflict”: Frances Fox to Stephen Cleary, January 3, 1990.
“He had more blues”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“I loved the way she looked”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 14, 1980.
“I didn’t get enough love”: Ibid.
“My mother never kissed me”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“We were expected to be model kids”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“I never got into any trouble”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, July 4, 1989.
“I didn’t get interested in music”: NS, interview clip in Nina Simone Live at Ronnie Scott’s, London.
“Music is a gift”: NS, interview in Arthur R. Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews (New York: Perigee, 1982).
“There was music every day”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“We all liked to play”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“I was and still am influenced”: NS, interview in Arthur R. Taylor, Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews (New York: Perigee, 1982).
“He would come running down”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“My mom christened me”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 7, 1980.
“On Sunday morning”: Mary Kate Waymon, interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende, TV movie (documentary), dir. Frank Lords, prod. La Sept, System TV, and BBC, 1992.
“They were some of the most exciting times”: NS, interview by Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice (radio program, WABC), November 12, 1967.
“My early joys were mixed”: Maya Angelou, “Nina Simone: High Priestess of Soul,” Redbook, November 1970.
“Whatever she did, I would trace it back”: Dick Gregory, interview by Liz Garbus, March 14, 2014.
CHAPTER 2
“There was a white woman”: Maya Angelou, “Nina Simone: High Priestess of Soul,” Redbook, November 1970, 132.
“It was on a Saturday afternoon”: Nina Simone (NS), interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 16, 1980.
“She was so elegant”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, July 5, 1989.
“I thought all white people was like that”: Ibid.
“Mrs. Mazzanovich used to hold out her arms”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“little colored child”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 16, 1980.
“Bach is technically perfect”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“The band suffered”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“Without willingness”: Angelou, “Nina Simone.”
“first introduction to being black”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“I ate it outside, standing”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 16, 1980.
“My mother had bought me a white dress”: Ibid.
“They were fixing the seats”: Mary Kate Waymon, interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende, TV movie (documentary), dir. Frank Lords, prod. La Sept, System TV, and BBC, 1992.
“Of course I wish they had admitted”: NS, appearance on Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan (hosts), This Morning (TV program, ITV [UK]), 1991.
“When [my mother] talked about Jim Crow”: Lisa Simone Kelly, interview by Liz Garbus, April 10, 2014.
“He is the first person who showed me”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 8, 1980.
“I had no boyfriend”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 7, 1980.
“It was a black boarding school”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 16, 1980.
“In high school, all I did”: NS, interview by Kiilu Nyasha, 1986.
“from the Black town”: Angelou, “Nina Simone.”
“She constantly, constantly”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, August 16, 1980.
“I met her girlfriend”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“I cried and cried”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 7, 1980.
“He told me, ‘If we don’t get married’ ”: Ibid.
“We petted all the time”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, August 21, 1989.
“He tried to rape me”: NS, interview by Mary Martin Niepold, May 7, 1980.
“How did Eunice Waymon”: Angelou, “Nina Simone.”
CHAPTER 3
“I had been looked down”:
Maureen Cleave, “Daddy and Mama Always Wanted Her to Play at Carnegie Hall,” Evening Standard, October 7, 1965.
“There was some talk”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“I went to Curtis”: Nina Simone (NS), Live at Ronnie Scott’s, London, 1984, performance and interview segments, Quantum Leap, 2003, DVD.
“ ‘When I was seventeen’ ”: Maya Angelou, “Nina Simone: High Priestess of Soul,” Redbook, November 1970.
“So the [Eunice Waymon Fund] money”: NS, appearance on Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice (radio program, WABC), November 12, 1967.
“It had nothing to do with her color”: Vladimir Sokoloff, interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende, TV movie (documentary), dir. Frank Lords, prod. La Sept, System TV, and BBC, 1992
“Whatever the truth is”: Roger Nupie, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“[She was] not a genius”: Sokoloff, interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende.
“Friedberg was much more gifted”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“I accompanied students”: NS, media appearance on Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice.
“I was near my family”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 26, 1990.
“I didn’t feel like I belonged anywhere”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1980.
“took care of me”: Ibid.
“The name derived from her childhood”: Philips Records press bio, n.d.
“a very crummy bar”: NS, media appearance on Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice.
“I played everything that I could”: Ibid.
“It was a joint”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 26, 1990.
“They knew she was a star”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“A cult was developed right then”: NS, interview by Kiilu Nyasha, 1986.
“All the time I was practicing”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, October 31, 1989.
“I felt dirtied by going into the bars”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
“It had been our secret”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“Our father was real pleased”: Ibid.
“Mom always said that my grandmother [hid] her albums”: Lisa Simone Kelly, interview by Liz Garbus, April 10, 2014.
“He was one of the people who came”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 4, 1989.
“charlatan”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“I couldn’t stand him”: Frances (Waymon) Fox, interview by Stephen Cleary, January 3, 1990.
“After about eight bars”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“Years later”: Ibid.
“By the way, please bring your guitar”: Ibid.
“I had never felt such freedom”: Al Schackman, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 11, 1990.
“The closest person that had a sound”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“I had sung all these songs”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 25, 1990.
“I didn’t know any happier love songs”: Ibid.
“I had an agent named Jerry Fields”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 4, 1989.
“Max was very good for her”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“I met him when I visited”: Ibid.
“just out of it”: Frances (Waymon) Fox, interview by Stephen Cleary, January 3, 1990.
“I think she was very innocent”: Ibid.
“I married him because I was so lonely”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 4, 1989.
CHAPTER 4
“My music had such power”: Nina Simone (NS), interview by Stephen Cleary, July 5, 1989.
“When I heard the real version”: Stanley Crouch, interview by Liz Garbus, May 16, 2014.
“She did One Fifth Avenue”: Al Schackman, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 11, 1990.
“My first piano teacher taught me”: NS, appearance on Tim Sebastian (host), Hard Talk (TV program, BBC), March 25, 1999.
“What Nina was doing”: Al Schackman, interview by Stephen Cleary, April 11, 1990.
“four reigning queens”: George Wein, interview by Liz Garbus, March 14, 2014.
“But I had a partner”: Ibid.
“She could bring deeper meanings”: Stanley Crouch, interview by Liz Garbus, May 16, 2014.
During her first stand at the Gate: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“It was almost always electric”: Art D’Lugoff, interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende, TV movie (documentary), dir. Frank Lords, prod. La Sept, System TV, and BBC, 1992.
“to protect the public from her”: Unnamed “Village Gate bouncer,” interview clip, 1991, in Nina Simone: La Légende.
“There were lines around the corner”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“I had my music”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, July 5, 1989.
“If I had had a choice”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, December 6, 1989.
“It didn’t hit me that I was sensational”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, July 5, 1989.
They would drive down the West Side Highway: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“very much alone”: Ibid.
“It was great”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
One night at the Apollo Theater: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“We paid attention to her”: George Wein, interview by Liz Garbus, March 14, 2014.
“We’ll get some rhythm started”: NS quoted by Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“I don’t remember very much about it”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“When she would leave the club”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 1990.
“I attracted a lot of gays”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 26, 1990.
“Have I been approached by women?”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, November 10, 1989.
Mathias was a downtown “party girl”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“Kevin was a very light-skinned black woman”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“I have envied other women”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, May 22, 1990.
CHAPTER 5
“She had her own mind”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“My dad was the fifth son”: Lisa Simone Kelly, interview by Liz Garbus, April 10, 2014.
“And that’s what attracted my mom to him”: Ibid.
“We got cute and whatnot”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“Nice to have met you”: Andrew Stroud, in “Nina Simone: The Rebel,” Fader, no. 38 (May–June 2006), http://www.thefader.com/magazine/38.
“By this time”: Nina Simone (NS), interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“He scared me to death”: NS, appearance on Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice (radio program, WABC), November 12, 1967.
“I had met a lot of women”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“His first wife was from the West Indies”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“I’d catch an eleven or twelve o’clock p.m. plane”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Lisa Simone, 2000s.
“got contaminated”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“I don’t know what their relationship was”: Ibid.
“I felt that I had been insulted”: Ibid.
“I couldn’t see”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“He came and he saw me”: Ibid.
“Darling Andy”: NS to Andrew Stroud, July 7, 1961.
“He had five brothers and s
isters”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“He started raining blows”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, 1990.
“My husband beat me nineteen hours”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“I had a gun”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“You think they’re gonna help you?”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“After he was exhausted”: Ibid.
“She needed to hide out”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 26, 2014.
“He asked me who had done that to me”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“I said, ‘Who the hell beat you up?’ ”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Lisa Simone, 2000s.
“I told him that he had done it”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“What have you been doing?”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“This beating, it was provoked”: Ibid.
“This is retaliation”: Ibid.
“I married him because I needed”: NS, interview by Mary Anne Evans, 1984.
“She was lost”: Carrol Waymon, interview by Stephen Cleary, February 4, 1990.
“I knew Andy as a decent friend”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 25, 2014.
“My father didn’t like him”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, July 5, 1989.
“It was like a black who’s who”: Al Schackman, interview by Joe Hagan, 2009.
“Everybody on the plane”: Ibid.
“Suddenly we realized”: Al Schackman, interview by Liz Garbus, March 25, 2014.
“i didn’t want to write”: NS to Stroud, Lagos, December 17, 1961.
“Such a short introduction”: Nina Simone with Stephen Cleary, I Put a Spell on You: The Autobiography of Nina Simone (New York: Da Capo Press, 1992), 81.
“It was a gamble”: Andrew Stroud, interview by Lisa Simone Kelly, 2000s.
“When [Andy] took over”: NS, appearance on Dick Hubert (host), Celebrity’s Choice.
“Most of them were treated badly”: George Wein, interview by Liz Garbus, March 14, 2014.
“Andrew has a degree in business administration”: NS, interview by Stephen Cleary, November 6, 1989.
“He didn’t take no shit”: Lisa Simone Kelly, interview by Liz Garbus, April 10, 2014.