Nina Simone

Nina Simone was the first of the soul divas. Classically trained, she brought her gift to bear on African-American music. She had an engagement with the blues, gospel, folk songs and rock and roll, but then her career veered away from these into an engagement with black consciouness.

---

Nina Simone was the first of the soul divas, and the most spectacular. Before Aretha Franklin, before Diana Ross, she established herself as a performer whose talent was matched only by her refusal to accept compromise. A classically trained prodigy, she brought her gift to bear on the whole sweep of African-American music, and much more besides, pushing ahead into an engagement with the blues, gospel, folk songs and even rock'n'roll. But just as she was becoming acclaimed by a more mainstream audience the course of her career veered away from the safe, conventional paths into the burgeoning black consciousness movement. Uncompromising and increasingly combative, Nina Simone refused to be pigeonholed. Above all she was a performer of compelling and often disturbing magnetism whose range was unsurpassed. Richard Williams explores the life and work of this enigmatic and brilliant woman, who could be notoriously difficult and unpredictable, in a book that exemplifies what great writing on music has the potential to be.