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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.
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
Heard
Intuitive
Choices
Studying
Known
Classical
Black
Concerts
Become
Classic
Music
Weren
Pianists
People
Technique
Pianist
Study
Concert
More quotes by Nina Simone
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 tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
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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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Theory and harmony broadened my mind in music. I know what music is made of.
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I think the rich will eventually have to cave in too, because the economic situation around the world is not gonna tolerate the United States being on top forever.
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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
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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I only knew classical music, which to me was the only true music. The only way I could survive at the bar was to mix the classical music with popular songs, and that meant I had to sing. What happened was that I discovered I had a voice plus the talent to mix classical music together with more popular songs, which at the time I detested.
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To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.
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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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I would like a man now who is rich, and who can give me a boat - a sailboat. I want to own it and let him pay for it. My first love is the sea and water, not music. Music is second.
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.
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I believe in racial memory too. I'm sure I've got ancient African blood in me that has something to do with what I am.
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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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You have to learn to get up from the table when love is not being served.
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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.
Nina Simone
You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.
Nina Simone
I don't like rap music at all. I don't think it's music. It's just a beat and rapping.
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I feel what they feel. And people who listen to me know that, and it makes them feel like they're not alone.
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Desegregation is a joke.
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