Nina Simone & Me with Laura Mvula Secret Knowledge


Nina Simone & Me with Laura Mvula

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# Take me outside

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# Sit in a green garden... #

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'I'm Laura Mvula.

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'When my debut album, Sing To The Moon, was released,

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'someone said I sounded like Nina Simone.

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'No-one sounds like Nina.

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'But I'm hugely flattered,

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'as I've always felt a deep connection with her.'

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# I put a spell on you...

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APPLAUSE

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# Cos you're mine, yeah... #

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'Nina Simone's infectious music still speaks to us,

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'over half a century since she first performed her songs.

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'Her influence is immense.

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'She's the one who opened the door

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'for generations of bold black female performers, including me.'

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I remember when I was, like, 17, I was like, "What is this,

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"and why do I want to cry when I hear her...wail or moan

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"or chant or shout?"

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'She's an artist with an extraordinary song book

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'that's almost impossible to categorise.

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'Her music has soul, jazz, folk and classical elements.

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'Sometimes it's feel-good and joyful,

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'other times it's like dark, bewitching blues.

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'I've come to New York City to explore

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'some of the Nina Simone songs that mean most to me and to find out

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'why Nina's music still casts a spell over her listeners today.

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# Because

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# You're mine. #

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APPLAUSE

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'I'm going right back to the beginning of Nina's musical story

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'and I'm starting my journey in Harlem.

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'The young Nina Simone came here

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'when it was the Juilliard School of Music in the summer of 1950.

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'Back then she was Eunice Waymon, a gifted 17-year-old

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'who aspired to become the world's first black concert pianist.

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'But Eunice never completed her conservatoire training.

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'To make money she started out as a nightclub singer

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'and renamed herself Nina Simone.'

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# I want your love and I don't want to borrow

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# Have it today to give back tomorrow

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# Your love is my love, there's no love for nobody else... #

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'In 1957 Nina recorded her first album, which captured

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'the rich variety of songs and styles

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'she'd been playing in the clubs.'

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'Like Nina, I studied classical piano, and to me

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'it's clear from her arrangements of songs like Love Me Or Leave Me

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'that she owes as much the baroque music of Johann Sebastian Bach

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'as to any jazz or blues performer.'

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I can hear so much how she's influenced by Bach.

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It's his melodies and the way that she's using the fugue idea,

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and so the fugue idea is when we have one tune on top

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and maybe there's another tune that comes underneath, and they're

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working independently and somehow working together at the same time.

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And I've transcribed just a little bit of the part where she's

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improvising classically.

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Only four bars, because my hands can't handle what she does.

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# I want your love, I don't want to borrow

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# Have it today to give back tomorrow

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# Your love is my love

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# There's no love for nobody else. #

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Once she's sung the first verse and the chorus

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then she's free with this improvisation.

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What's even more awesome is that she takes risks with this.

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She knows all the rules but then she completely abandons them.

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# For nobody else. #

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APPLAUSE

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'I've come to Greenwich Village to meet someone

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'who tuned in to Nina's distinct musical wavelength.

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'Al Schackman was her musical director,

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'guitarist and friend for 46 years.

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'Nina and Al would play many songs on many stages together

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'but the Village Gate was where they played the most.

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'The very first song they played together

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'was also the title track of Nina's first album, Little Girl Blue.'

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# Sit there

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# Count your little fingers

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# Unhappy little girl blue... #

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'It's a record very dear to my heart.

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'I've covered the song and I'm going to play it with Al today.'

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# Sit there

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# And count the raindrops

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# Falling on you

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# It's time you knew

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# All you can ever count on

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# Are the raindrops

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# That fall on little girl blue... #

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'I love the way she uses the countermelody of Good King Wenceslas

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'as if it were a Bach fugue.

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'Mixing up her influences

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'made Nina's arrangements complex and exciting.

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'She played popular tunes like a classical pianist.'

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# Blue boy

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# To cheer up

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# Little girl blue. #

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Mmm.

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-Yes, ma'am!

-Thank you, sir.

-Oh, it's chills being back here in this...

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-Really? I bet.

-In this place. I never played the song again...

-Mm.

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-..since Nina, until now.

-Wow.

-And it's, like, whoa!

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And she never told me what she was going to play, didn't

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look at me, no key or anything, and she started in on the introduction.

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-OK. Wow.

-To Little Girl Blue.

-Wow.

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And I started to play the counterpoint with her and then

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she looked up at me and I looked down at her

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-and we were off and running.

-Wow.

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And it was...it was fabulous.

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# We come

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# And we go... #

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It just seemed to be organic, just natural.

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We were like telepathic together.

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'Nina and Al's musical relationship was for the most part harmonious

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'but from the beginning Nina demanded

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'only the best from her band.'

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Suddenly she would decide to change the key, and she would just start.

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You know, instead of playing E flat she'd start in E,

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-and I knew she was in E.

-Whoo!

-We both had perfect pitch.

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I'd be standing, usually on a riser, above her piano on that side,

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and the audience would be out here,

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and the bass player would be there,

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the drummer there and percussion...out there.

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-And I would just quickly say, "E!"

-Wow.

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-God help us if we stumbled and made a mistake.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-OK.

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-She was a taskmaster.

-Right.

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And if one of us just goofed something in the arrangement of

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anything we did in rehearsal,

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we'd have to repeat the piece ten times.

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-Oh, wow.

-Because that's how she was taught

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when she was a youngster by her piano teacher.

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-You know this one?

-HE PLAYS "MY BABY JUST CARES FOR ME"

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# My baby don't care for shows

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# My baby don't care for clothes

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# My baby just cares for me!

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# My baby don't care for

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# Cars and races

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# My baby don't care for

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# Don't care for high-tone places

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# Liz Taylor is... #

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'Within her repertoire, Nina Simone effortlessly covered

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'everything from ballad to blues, show tune to pop song.

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'In her hands they were transformed into extraordinary,

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'timeless classics.'

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# My baby don't care who

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# Who knows

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# My baby just cares for me. #

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THEY LAUGH

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# Baby

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# My baby don't care for shows... #

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'Nina arranged her cover of My Baby Just Cares For Me

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'as a filler for that same debut album in 1957.

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'But 30 years later this long-forgotten song

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'became a worldwide hit,

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'inspiring a new generation of fans to discover her music.

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'From TV adverts to dance floor remixes,

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'Nina's songs have surrounded us ever since.'

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# My baby just cares

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# For me. #

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'So what is it about Nina's music that makes it so hard to resist?

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'Underneath her grooves, showmanship and classical stylings,

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'there's something else that gives her songs deep emotional impact.'

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# Listen here

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# Nobody's fault but mine

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# Nobody's fault but mine

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# I said, if I die and my soul is lost

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# Hey! Nobody's fault but mine... #

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'Nina's mother was a Methodist minister.

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'She had her musically gifted daughter

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'playing the opening hymn in church from just four years old

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'and leading the congregation at the piano from the age of five.

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'In her mother's eyes,

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'Eunice had a gift from God that had to be shared.'

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# Well, if I die and my soul is lost

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-# Nobody

-Nobody's fault but mine

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# Nobody's fault but mine... #

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We were all born in the Depression

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and grew up in the South in the '30s and '40s,

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and what life was like then formed us.

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We're around the same age and we both are from North Carolina.

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'Bill Eaton is a musical arranger who's worked with

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'Harry Belafonte, Roberta Flack and Bill Withers,

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'and he shares the same Southern gospel roots with Nina.'

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So what do you think Nina took from her church upbringing,

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the gospel music that surrounded her as a kid?

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Playing in church, you know, you sit there and you listen,

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and when the preacher gets to a certain level of fervour

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-you start doing stuff on the piano.

-OK.

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And he says, "Yeah!", you go...hmmm. He says, "Yeah!", you go... You know.

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And then people...you know, the people respond to that,

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and pretty soon you've got a maelstrom of emotions going on.

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-And you lit the match.

-Yes.

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Gives you a sense of power, and you never forget that sense of power.

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You can bring that into any arena if you're a performer.

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'Decades later, the lessons she learnt in church would

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'inspire Nina to create her version of an old spiritual

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'that remains one of her most popular songs today.'

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# Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

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# Sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

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# Whoo!

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# Where you gonna run to

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# On that day?

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# Well, I run to the rock... #

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'Sinnerman... Nina made it sound like gospel song.

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'She brought her genius to it

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'and applied what she learned in church to the music.

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'What she did to the song was,

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'she just made it a vehicle for her creativity, that's all.

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# Lord, Lord, Lord

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# On that day

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# I said, rock

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# What's the matter with you? #

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'Like Nina, I grew up with gospel music.

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'Once it's in your blood it stays with you,

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'and I'm still drawing on its influence.'

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# So I ran to the devil

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# Devil was waiting I ran to the devil

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# Devil was waiting I ran to the devil, oh, oh, oh

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# Lord, on that day... #

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'And the call and response that we hear in the song,

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'it's not a thing that's a... roots thing that came up,

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'that she heard around her.

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'That's totally her invention.'

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# Power

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# Power

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# Power

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# Power

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# Power

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# Power

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# Power

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# Oh, sinnerman, where you gonna run to?

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# On that day... #

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You can take a choir

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and have them perform it the way she performed it...

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-Mm.

-..and it becomes powerful.

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In the same way that it became powerful when she performed it.

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-That's a real gift if people do that.

-Mm-hm.

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By the time she went out to the world, she'd already

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made people get in the aisle and dance around like that, so she...

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-You know.

-Yeah.

-She knew she could do it.

-She knew what she was doing.

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Oh, she was always confident in that way.

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'Nina's background in gospel gave her an exceptional ability

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'to improvise and connect with her audience.

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'It made her a compelling and unpredictable stage presence.

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'Nina lived to perform. As she herself said...

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'If I had my way, it would just take off.

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'If a band could be there right then and start playing

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'and everybody start dancing, oh, wow, what a happening.

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'What a happening.'

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'As the 1960s took hold and Nina grew as a performer, she would use

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'her talent for rousing an audience in a new and radical way.

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'And it was in 1963 that Nina was first spurred into action.

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'First there was the murder of Medgar Evers, a leading light

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'in the civil rights movement, at the hands of a white man.

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'Then four black schoolchildren were killed when Ku Klux Klan members

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'threw dynamite into a Baptist church in Birmingham, Alabama.

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'Nina Simone was determined to fight back.'

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She just went ballistic,

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and wanted to buy a gun and go down South and just kill people.

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You say, "You don't know how to shoot a gun."

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-She says, "I can learn."

-THEY LAUGH

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She once said, "All I have to do is point and pull the trigger

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"and I know what I'm pointing at."

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And we all said, you know, "Why don't you just turn that into...

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"you know, write about it, tell the story,

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"do what you can, what you know how to do."

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# Hound dogs on my trail

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# Schoolchildren sitting in jail... #

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'Instead, Nina chose music as her weapon,

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'and, fired up with rage, wrote both the words and the music of a song

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'for the first time in her career.'

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# God have mercy on this land of mine

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# We all gonna get it in due time

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# I don't belong here, I don't belong there

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# I've even stopped believing in prayer

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# Almost, but not quite... #

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-She wrote that song, like, in minutes, almost.

-Really?

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Yeah, and we performed it for the first time here at the Village Gate.

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Depending on her mood or what she had been thinking about,

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she would change some phrasing, drop a different line in, especially

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during the interlude, where, you know, we're just playing...

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Yeah, so...

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Right. So keep that going.

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And that's where she'd do...

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Er, "This is a show tune but the show hasn't been written for it yet.

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"Did you hear about what happened in North Carolina?

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"It's just another goddam example of Mississippi Goddam,

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"Carolina Goddam, the whole South Goddam."

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-And that's how she would...

-Yeah.

-She would just go...

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-So could we try a little bit of Mississippi Goddam?

-Yeah.

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-Yeah, you've got the vamp, you...

-OK, well, I'll do my best.

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-Or I'll do it, if you want.

-Yeah, yeah, you start.

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# Alabama got me so upset

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# Tennessee make me lose my rest

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# Everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam

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# Can you see it... #

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'Mississippi Goddam is a song that makes me

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'want to sing along with its catchy show-tune rhythm.

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'But what makes it so amazing are the bitter,

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'electrically charged lyrics that she places on top.'

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-# Well, that's just the trouble

-Too slow!

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-# Desegregation

-Too slow!

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-# Mass participation

-Too slow!

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-# Unification

-Too slow!

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-# Do things gradually

-Too slow!

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-# Will bring more tragedy

-Too slow!

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# Why don't you see it? Why don't you feel it?

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# I don't know... #

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-What was the response from the audience?

-Erm...kinda shocked.

-OK.

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I mean, there really wasn't a song like that,

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dedicated so strongly and with such strong statements, like,

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"You don't have to live with me, just give me my equality."

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# You don't have to live next to me... #

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'Releasing Mississippi Goddam was a bold decision for Nina.

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'Crates of her records were broken in protest.

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'Nina's bravery would cost her the loyalty of much of her white audience.

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'But in 1965, when Martin Luther King led thousands

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'marching 54 miles over five days for black voting rights in Alabama

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'and the South, Nina couldn't stand watching the unrest

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'unfold from the sidelines and decided that she and Al would

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'take the firebrand song to an audience who would appreciate it.'

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We actually were playing at the Village Gate and we flew down from there

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and we had to go through the lines of state police that were

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surrounding the seminary,

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where the big concert was going to happen on the soccer field.

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Harry Belafonte, James Baldwin, erm, Leonard Bernstein,

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and we had to cross those lines to get in to perform.

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# Can't you see it, can't you feel it?

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# It's all in the air

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# I can't stand the pressure much longer

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# Somebody say a prayer

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# Alabama's got me so upset

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# Selma makes me lose my rest CHEERING

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# And everybody knows about Mississippi Goddam... #

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'In Mississippi Goddam, Nina Simone proved herself a brilliant

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'and original songwriter, who could write powerful music

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'and lyrics that helped inspire and agitate her generation.'

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# I want a little sugar... APPLAUSE

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# In my bowl... #

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'But Nina didn't only lend her voice to the struggle.

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'She also expressed the new-found female confidence

0:21:430:21:47

'and independence of the era in a very personal way

0:21:470:21:50

'with her versions of songs like I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl,

0:21:500:21:55

'originally performed by blueswoman Bessie Smith.'

0:21:550:21:58

The blues singers are the most famous performers

0:22:000:22:02

in the African-American tradition at the time

0:22:020:22:06

but they're also making us think about black women's sexuality,

0:22:060:22:10

not in the stereotypical way of being hypersexual

0:22:100:22:14

but about women who have sexual agency, who have sexual desire.

0:22:140:22:17

# I put a spell on you... APPLAUSE

0:22:190:22:22

# Cos you're mine, yeah

0:22:280:22:31

# I don't like the things you do

0:22:350:22:37

# I ain't lyin'... #

0:22:410:22:44

There's something about Nina Simone's style

0:22:440:22:46

that I think most audiences would think is quite haunting,

0:22:460:22:49

that we're left with this spell.

0:22:490:22:51

But I think Nina Simone, and I can't think of too many artists who can

0:22:510:22:54

do this, but she brings vulnerability and defiance together.

0:22:540:22:58

# They say you're mean and evil... #

0:22:580:23:01

And I think that actually is something that

0:23:010:23:03

artists are trying to find and articulate for themselves today.

0:23:030:23:08

Part of that I think is what the blueswomen gave her,

0:23:080:23:10

and then she kind of adapts it, because with the 1960s

0:23:100:23:13

there's this vibrant feminist movement and women really

0:23:130:23:16

are redefining what it means to be sexual and what it means to be free.

0:23:160:23:20

And so even though she didn't self-identify as a feminist

0:23:200:23:23

she's also shaping that movement and part of that movement as well.

0:23:230:23:26

'I've come to meet Camille Yarbrough,

0:23:310:23:33

'an activist, writer and musician.'

0:23:330:23:36

-How are you?! Hi!

-Come on in, come on in!

0:23:360:23:39

'Camille knew and was inspired by Nina

0:23:390:23:42

'and I want to talk to her today

0:23:420:23:44

'about my favourite Nina song, Four Women.'

0:23:440:23:46

Hello.

0:23:490:23:50

'For me, it's her most striking and original composition, where

0:23:510:23:55

'she binds together all her themes

0:23:550:23:58

'of sexuality, race and emancipation.'

0:23:580:24:02

# My skin is black

0:24:020:24:05

# My arms are long... #

0:24:080:24:11

'Here, Nina Simone dared examine

0:24:110:24:13

'the troubled history of black female experience

0:24:130:24:16

'in an America that was still dealing with the legacy of slavery.'

0:24:160:24:20

# And my back is strong... #

0:24:200:24:23

# Strong enough to take the pain

0:24:230:24:28

# Inflicted again and again

0:24:280:24:34

# What do they call me?

0:24:340:24:36

# They call me Aunt Sarah

0:24:390:24:43

# My name is Aunt Sarah... #

0:24:460:24:51

What does this song mean to you?

0:24:510:24:54

All of these lyrics are disturbing to me. "My name is Aunt Sarah."

0:24:540:24:59

You ain't no aunt to this family, you know what I mean?

0:24:590:25:02

But when you're elderly they would refer to aunt and uncle,

0:25:020:25:06

as if you belong to the family of the slaveholders.

0:25:060:25:10

# My father was rich and white

0:25:100:25:14

# He forced my mother late one night... #

0:25:160:25:20

If people don't know what these lyrics mean, they should examine it.

0:25:200:25:25

Again, Nina Simone showed her strength,

0:25:250:25:29

her wisdom and her courage.

0:25:290:25:32

There's the obvious expression of deep pain,

0:25:320:25:35

and, like you say, it's not a comfortable song.

0:25:350:25:39

But, for me, I remember thinking when I first heard it, I'd never

0:25:390:25:43

heard a song before talking about four women of different shades.

0:25:430:25:47

-There you go.

-So this to me was revolutionary.

-Yes.

0:25:470:25:51

# Whose little girl am I?

0:25:510:25:53

# Why, yours, if you've got some money to buy... #

0:25:550:25:59

It had that longing that you hear in old spirituals.

0:25:590:26:03

# Mmmmm-mmmmmmmm.... #

0:26:030:26:06

-You know, they just go on and on.

-Everlasting space.

0:26:060:26:09

CAMILLE IMPROVISES MELODY

0:26:090:26:12

You can feel it, you can hear it.

0:26:120:26:14

# Sweet Thing... #

0:26:140:26:21

So she always goes back to spirituals and gospel,

0:26:210:26:24

and that's in most of her music,

0:26:240:26:27

whether it's an upbeat or not it's still...it's still there.

0:26:270:26:31

-I think it's probably the rawest female...black female vocal...

-Mm-hm.

0:26:310:26:36

-It's in my head, I'll never forget that...sound.

-Mm-hm.

0:26:360:26:40

'Nina's songs shine a spotlight on all kinds of human pain

0:26:400:26:44

'and experience and are often full of sadness, anger and longing.

0:26:440:26:50

'But some of her most well-loved and famous songs are also hopeful,

0:26:500:26:54

'uplifting and irresistibly feel-good.'

0:26:540:26:58

She had to say, "We experience this but we go above it."

0:26:580:27:04

-Mm.

-"Birds in the sky, you know how I feel.

0:27:040:27:07

"A breeze going by, something, you know how I feel."

0:27:070:27:11

It was a difficult period, in which she nourished us,

0:27:110:27:15

through which she nourished us.

0:27:150:27:17

# Birds flying high, you know how I feel

0:27:170:27:22

# Sun in the sky, you know how I feel

0:27:240:27:28

# Breeze drifting on by, you know how I feel

0:27:280:27:31

# It's a new dawn

0:27:340:27:36

# It's a new day, yeah

0:27:360:27:39

# It's a new life for me

0:27:390:27:41

-# And I'm feeling good

-Good... #

0:27:410:27:44

# Fish in the sea

0:27:500:27:53

# You know how I feel

0:27:530:27:55

# River running free

0:27:560:27:59

# You know how I feel... #

0:27:590:28:01

Nina Simone's music stirs the soul, restores, challenges,

0:28:020:28:07

nourishes, uplifts and comforts.

0:28:070:28:10

'She opened the door for the black female songstress and voice.

0:28:100:28:16

'Here is an artist who used the broadest palette -

0:28:180:28:21

'gospel, blues, classical and pop.

0:28:210:28:25

'She created a musical style to express political anger,

0:28:250:28:29

'personal pain and her desire for freedom.'

0:28:290:28:34

I don't know if there'll ever be another artist like Nina

0:28:340:28:37

but I'm thankful that the power of her legacy

0:28:370:28:40

and the power of her voice lives on.

0:28:400:28:43

# Oh, freedom is mine

0:28:430:28:46

# And I know how I feel

0:28:460:28:49

# It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life

0:28:490:28:54

# For me

0:28:540:28:56

SHE SCATS

0:28:560:28:59

# I'm feeling good... #

0:29:040:29:09

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