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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
Black
Music
People
Classical
Define
Racism
Jazz
Term
White
More quotes by Nina Simone
I think the rich are too rich and the poor are too poor. I don't think the black people are going to rise at all I think most of them are going to die.
Nina Simone
It's logical that people from bad times will reflect their feelings in their communication. Music is part of the communication. If you lived it, you can do it.
Nina Simone
I had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
Nina Simone
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.
Nina Simone
I was not reluctant to become a singer. Singing has been an activity I've done my whole life, without thought.
Nina Simone
From the beginning, it has been a no-no for a black man to touch a white woman.
Nina Simone
I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
Nina Simone
I can't stand loud guitars that make me deaf.
Nina Simone
I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
Nina Simone
There are all kinds of things that can be done. You can change rhythms, you can change chords, you can change whole concepts. But it will only work, on a record or in a performance, if you can make the people buy it.
Nina Simone
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
I think if I were over there in America, protest music would be more important. But I'm not going.
Nina Simone
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
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.
Nina Simone
I try to swim every damn day I can, and I've learned to scuba dive and snorkel.
Nina Simone
I'm sorry that I did not become the world's first black classic pianist. I think I would have been happier.
Nina Simone
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
Nina Simone
You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.
Nina Simone
That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
Nina Simone
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
Nina Simone
