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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.
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
Jazz
Music
Way
Thinking
Life
More quotes by 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
To most white people, jazz means black and jazz means dirt, and that's not what I play. I play black classical music.
Nina Simone
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, a song that was written for Simone, she confronted the band's lead singer, Eric Burdon. So you're the honky, she said, who stole my song and got a hit out of it?
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
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.
Nina Simone
You don't have to live next to me / Just give me my equality.
Nina Simone
I tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.
Nina Simone
I play piano, by ear. Yes, I write songs... and good ones.
Nina Simone
Music has been a burden and a joy for as long as I can remember.
Nina Simone
Everything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina Simone
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
Nina Simone
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.
Nina Simone
I know I'm different, but I don't think about it.
Nina Simone
To be young, gifted and black!
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 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.
Nina Simone
Music is one of the ways by which you can know everything which is going on in the world. You can feel... through music... Whew... you can feel the vibrations of everybody in the world at any given moment.
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
That's a very high goal to have, study eight hours a day to be a concert pianist.
Nina Simone
This may be a dream, but I'll say it anyway: I was supposed to be married last year, and I bought a gown. When I meet Nelson Mandela, I shall put on this gown and have the train of it removed and put aside, and kiss the ground that he walks on and then kiss his feet.
Nina Simone
