ALICIA BANKS

Radio Producer, Public Intellectual, Talk Show Host, DJ, Columnist, Scholar, Singer

ELOQUENT FURY



REVOLUTIONARY AFRICAN TRUTH

EXPRESSLY FOR RADICAL INTELLECTUALS WHO SEEK KNOWLEDGE
   (*******WARNING: HAZARDOUS TO NEOCON DELUSION*******)

 

THE ETERNAL SONGSTRESS:
A TRIBUTE TO NINA SIMONE

Nina Simone’s gifted regal spirit has left this earth, but her music will be with us here forever. Her music plays eternally in my head, heart, and soul. Nina lives forever inside my FM mix on Les Chanteuses Africaines...

I adored Nina Simone. This column is belated because mourning Nina took some time...Please excuse my delay. I thank all of you who have patiently awaited this tribute.

Losing Nina physically meant losing so much more than a recording artist. Nina was a political rebel, a social activist, a protest singer, a song stylist, a composer, an arranger, and a pianist. Nina’s musical talents were universal. She masterfully composed, played, and performed jazz, blues, gospel, folk, pop, and classical music.

Nina was so much more than a musical performer. She was a bold and brave political warrior. I was born in 1963. In 1963, Nina gave birth to a classic protest song called “Mississippi Goddam!” She penned it to rebel against the racist murder of Medgar Evers in Mississippi and the racist bombing of four black baby girls, inside a church, one Sunday morning, by Klansmen in Alabama. She also crafted the eclectic classic “Pirate Jenny” about a heroic haunted African slave ship that avenges its black human cargo ashore. In “Go to Hell”, she makes angry damnation artistic jubilation. In her gospel/folk signature tune, “I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free”, she makes real longing lyrical and misery melodius.

My favorite Nina Simone song is also a protest song. I love African dance. A perfect evening would be watching Alvin Ailey’s dance troupe perform, followed by a four star soul food dinner. Black music, black movement, and black cuisine are all sacred magic. As a young child in Chicago, one of the first such black dance events I recall attending featured a masterful sister who danced a sultry solo to Nina’s sensual womanist anthem “Four Women”. I fell in love with that dancer, that song, and Nina simultaneously.

In 1969, Nina renounced the USA due to racism and became a global traveler. In 1978, she was arrested for protesting Vietnam and the IRS. In 1987 she was the star of the soundtrack for the film “Point of No Return”. In 1993, Nina retired in France.

Nina was a musical genius. She was gifted and made all of her gifts art. She made her complex artistry completely political. Her other classic protest songs included a eulogy for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. entitled “Why the King of Love is Dead”. In 1972, inspired by the renowned work of her sista friend Lorraine Hansberry, Nina penned “Young, Gifted, and Black”. This song became the consummate black commencement ceremony anthem. In this classic song, she set African pride, rebel pomp, and revolutionary circumstance to a timeless melody.

Nina physically departed on April, 21, 2003. She was 70. She died in her beloved home in southern France. Nina was born “Eunice Waymon” on February 21, 1933 in Tryon, North Carolina. She became a pianist at age 6. At age 10, she performed her first formal recital, while her parents were forced to sit far in the rear because they were black. Nina never forgot this traumatic racist abuse that left a permanent emotional scar. Nina bore that scar as a warrior mark that fueled her social activism for the rest of her life.

In 1950, Nina attended Juilliard in NYC. In 1954, she adopted Nina Simone as her stage name and she became an Atlantic City star as a piano woman and lounge singer at the Midtown Bar and Grill. Nina became a national star when she released her first album in 1958.

Nina’s vocal magic transformed many classic covers. She took Screaming Jay Hawkin’s spooky song called “I Put a Spell on You” and made it sultry and seductive. She took the Beatles’ rebel pop tune “Revolution” and made it even more political and soulful. In her superb rendition of “Mr. Bojangles”, she actually seems to channel the spirit of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson as no other singer ever has. In her superb version of “I Loves You Porgy” she channels the collective spirits and pains of our raped and enslaved African mothers...

Nina’s deep and raspy voice was raw, moody, and unpredictable. For us serious musicologists and music collectors, Nina presents a very special challenge. She never sang any song the same way twice. Thus, hunting a specific version of her extensive recordings is still a uniquely thrilling adventure...

Like her multiple musical talents, Nina’s physical beauty was awesomely regal. Her clothing and hair styles were authentically African. Her face was like a perfect African sculpture or mask. Nina was a Queen. Everything about her was Nubian royalty.


Dear Sista Queen Nina:
I can never say goodbye....You put a spell on all of us. We are enchanted still and we will be so for all eternity...


Four Women
by Nina Simone


My skin is black
My arms are long
My hair is woolly
My back is strong
Strong enough to take the pain
inflicted again and again
What do they call me?
My name is AUNT SARAH
My name is Aunt Sarah


My skin is yellow
My hair is long
Between two worlds
I do belong
My father was rich and white
He forced my mother late one night
What do they call me?
My name is SAFFRONIA
My name is Saffronia


My skin is tan
My hair is fine
My hips invite you
my mouth like wine
Whose little girl am I?
Anyone who has money to buy
What do they call me?
My name is SWEET THING
My name is Sweet Thing


My skin is brown
my manner is tough
I'll kill the first mother I see
My life has been too rough
I'm awfully bitter these days
Because my parents were slaves
What do they call me?
My name is PEACHES


Any essential collection of Nina’s tunes will include the following:


FOUR WOMEN
MISSISSIPPI GODDAM!
REVOLUTION
WHY THE KING OF LOVE IS DEAD
TO BE YOUNG, GIFTED, & BLACK
I WISH I KNEW HOW IT WOULD FEEL TO BE FREE
PIRATE JENNY
I PUT A SPELL ON YOU
BLACK IS THE COLOR
LITTLE GIRL BLUE
DAY & NIGHT
THE LAZIEST GAL IN TOWN
I WANT A LITTLE SUGAR IN MY BOWL
BALM IN GILEAD
MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME
MR. BOJANGLES
DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO
BROWN-EYED HANDSOME MAN
I LOVES YOU PORGY
SUNDAY IN SAVANNAH
BACKLASH BLUES
GO TO HELL
RICH GIRL
EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE
THAT’S ALL I WANT FROM YOU
HERE COMES THE SUN
O-O-H CHILD
THE LOOK OF LOVE
HE’S GOT THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS
FOR ALL WE KNOW
AIN’T GOT NO/I GOT LIFE
TO LOVE SOMEBODY
HE NEEDS ME
WILD IS THE WIND
HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN
SINCE I FELL FOR YOU
MY WAY


The beautiful Nina Simone:

Age 9


Age 24




For more information on Nina Simone, read her classic autobiography:

“I Put a Spell on You”
by Nina Simone


For more columns and tributes, see The Eloquent Fury Index at:

www.oocities.org/ambwww/index.html


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