Quote

Jazz is a white term to define black people. My music is black classical music.

Nina Simone

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Nina Simone
Age: 75 †
Born: 1933
Born: February 21
Died: 2008
Died: April 21
Composer
Jazz Pianist
Recording Artist
Singer
Singer-Songwriter
Tryon
North Carolina
Eunice Kathleen Waymon
High Priestess of Soul
White
Black
Music
People
Classical
Define
Racism
Jazz
Term

More quotes by Nina Simone

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Since I was three I've been playing the piano. I've been onstage.
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I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
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I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
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How do you explain what it feels like to get on the stage and make poetry that you know sinks into the hearts and souls of people who are unable to express it
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My job is not done. I address my songs now to the third world. I am popular all over Asia and Africa and the Middle East, not to speak of South Africa, where I'm trying to go to see Nelson Mandela.
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When I was studying... there weren't any black concert pianists. My choices were intuitive, and I had the technique to do it. People have heard my music and heard the classic in it, so I have become known as a black classical pianist.
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I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
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My love is like the wind and wild is the wind. Give me more than one caress, satisfy my hungriness. Let the wind blow through your heart for wild is the wind.
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I don't like to go to strange places.
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I love the classics but there are many new ideas to be made into reality. I'd rather be concerned with my own thing. There are many masters of classical piano so I'll leave it to them.
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I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
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The Beatles are lucky, very lucky. But what has happened to them has nothing to do with them, in a sense. They came along at the right time. Attention was focused on them. They've had the chance to grow in almost any direction they wanted. Very lucky. They are not exceptionally talented.
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That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
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I made wine from the lilac tree/Put my heart in its recipe/It makes me see what I want to see/And be what I want to be
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It is difficult to retain your standards with the pressure of trying to make money, which always has its rules...It's hard to walk the tightrope of doing what you think is your best and making money at it.
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Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin' on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I'm feeling good I'm feeling good
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I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.
Nina Simone
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Desegregation is a joke.
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Jazz is not just music, it's a way of life, it's a way of being, a way of thinking.
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I do not believe in mixing of the races. You can quote me. I don't believe in it, and I never have. I've never changed. I've never changed my hair. I've never changed my color, I have always been proud of myself, and my fans are proud of me for remaining the way I've always been. I married a white man one time, but he was a creep
Nina Simone