What Happened, Miss Simone?

Author: Alan Light
Publisher: Crown Archetype
ISBN: 1101904879
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
Inspired by the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary What Happened, Miss Simone?, an intimate and vivid look at the legendary life of Nina Simone, the classically trained pianist who evolved into a chart-topping chanteuse and committed civil rights activist. From music journalist and former Spin and Vibe editor-in-chief Alan Light comes a biography of incandescent soul singer and Black Power icon Nina Simone, one of the most influential, provocative, and least understood artists of our time. Drawn from a trove of rare archival footage, audio recordings and interviews (including Simone's remarkable private diaries), this nuanced examination of Nina Simone’s life highlights her musical inventiveness and unwavering quest for equality, while laying bare the personal demons that plagued her from the time of her Jim Crow childhood in North Carolina to her self-imposed exile in Liberia and Paris later in life. Harnessing the singular voice of Miss Simone herself and incorporating candid reflections from those who knew her best, including her only daughter, Light brings us face to face with a legend, examining the very public persona and very private struggles of one of our greatest artists.

Princess Noire

Author: Nadine Cohodas
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
ISBN: 0807882747
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 461

Book Description
Born Eunice Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina, Nina Simone (1933-2003) began her musical life playing classical piano. A child prodigy, she wanted a career on the concert stage, but when the Curtis Institute of Music rejected her, the devastating disappointment compelled her to change direction. She turned to popular music and jazz but never abandoned her classical roots or her intense ambition. By the age of twenty six, Simone had sung at New York City's venerable Town Hall and was on her way. Tapping into newly unearthed material on Simone's family and career, Nadine Cohodas paints a luminous portrait of the singer, highlighting her tumultuous life, her innovative compositions, and the prodigious talent that matched her ambition. With precision and empathy, Cohodas weaves the story of Simone's contentious relationship with audiences and critics, her outspoken support for civil rights, her two marriages and her daughter, and, later, the sense of alienation that drove her to live abroad from 1993 until her death. Alongside these threads runs a more troubling one: Simone's increasing outbursts of rage and pain that signaled mental illness and a lifelong struggle to overcome a deep sense of personal injustice.

I Put A Spell On You

Author: Nina Simone
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9780306813276
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
The inimitable, gorgeously talented Nina Simone (1933-2003)--the "high priestess of soul"--sets the story of her tumultuous, passionate life straight in I Put a Spell on You. Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in small-town North Carolina, Nina Simone changed the face of both music and race relations in America. She struck a chord with bluesy jazz ballads like "Put a Little Sugar in My Bowl" and powerful protest songs such as "Mississippi Goddam" and "To Be Young, Gifted, and Black," the anthem of the American Civil Rights movement. Here are the many lives and loves of Nina Simone, recounted in her unshakable voice.

Nina Simone

Author: Aurum Press, Limited
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781781312148
Category : Singers
Languages : en
Pages :

Book Description
"The greatest female artist of the 20th century” – Elton John This first-ever biography of Nina Simone caused quite a stir among reviewers. “A chastening read”, said the Sunday Times; “Simone’s story is as harrowing as it is remarkable”, said the Yorkshire Post. No-one was quite prepared for the life story of the singer of such enduringly uplifting classics as “My Baby Just Cares for Me” turning out to be such a chilling litany of mental disorder, vile temper, terrible abuse at the hands of bad men, and a self-destructively hostile attitude all too often to the acolytes who came to see her perform. Brun-Lambert shows how Simone saw herself as a lifelong victim of racism, right from being turned down by the prestigious music school that would have enabled her to become a classical musician. Undiagnosed bipolar disorder, he argues, added to her torment. But it was her unforgettable voice, and, at best, her utterly magnetic performances, that kept people coming to a sold-out Ronnie Scott’s every time she was in residency, and the way she sang her hardest songs like “Mississippi Goddam”with such fire and fury that they became anthems of political change, and means so many people can only be curious about the real life of the mecurial woman behind the piano. David Brun-Lambert is a highly regarded French writer and broadcaster.

What We Keep

Author: Bill Shapiro
Publisher: Running Press Adult
ISBN: 0762462558
Category : Photography
Languages : en
Pages : 419

Book Description
With contributions from Cheryl Strayed, Mark Cuban, Ta-Nahesi Coates, Melinda Gates, Joss Whedon, James Patterson, and many more -- this fascinating collection gives us a peek into 150 personal treasures and the secret histories behind them. All of us have that one object that holds deep meaning--something that speaks to our past, that carries a remarkable story. Bestselling author Bill Shapiro collected this sweeping range of stories--he talked to everyone from renowned writers to Shark Tank hosts, from blackjack dealers to teachers, truckers, and nuns, even a reformed counterfeiter--to reveal the often hidden, always surprising lives of objects.

Art of the Cut

Author: Steve Hullfish
Publisher: CRC Press
ISBN: 104003649X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 353

Book Description
This is the second volume of the widely acclaimed Art of the Cut book published in 2017. This follow-up text expands on its predecessor with wisdom from more than 360 interviews with the world’s best editors (including nearly every Oscar winner from the last 30 years). Because editing is a highly subjective art form, and one that is critical to the success of motion picture storytelling, it requires side-by-side comparisons of the many techniques and solutions used by a wide range of editors from around the world. That is why this book compares and contrasts methodologies from a wide array of diverse voices and organizes that information so that it is easily digested and understood. There is no one way to approach editorial problems, so this book allows readers to see multiple solutions from multiple editors. The interviews contained within are carefully curated into topics that are most important to film editors and those who aspire to become film editors. The questions asked, and the organization of the book, are not merely an academic or theoretical view of the art of editing but rather the practical advice and methodologies of actual working film and TV editors, bringing benefits to both students and professional readers. The book is supplemented by a collection of downloadable online exclusive chapters, which cover additional topics ranging from Choosing the Project to VFX. In addition to the supplementary chapters, access to the full-color, full-resolution images printed in the book—and other exclusive images—is included.

I Put A Spell On You

Author: Nina Simone
Publisher: Da Capo Press
ISBN: 9780306805257
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
James Baldwin used to tell Nina Simone, "This is the world you have made for yourself, now you have to live in it." Simone has created for herself a world of magnificent peaks. Often compared to Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, Simone is known as one of the greatest singers of her generation. She has recorded forty-three albums, ranging from blues to jazz to folk, and her hits like "I Loves You, Porgy," "My Baby Just Cares for Me," "I Put a Spell on You," and "Mississippi Goddam" have confirmed her as an enduring force in popular music. Her song "Young, Gifted, and Black" became the anthem for the Civil Rights Movement and thrust her beyond international stardom into the center of activism. But such worlds as Simone's are not without their grim valleys: disastrous marriages, arrest and the threat of imprisonment, mental breakdown, poverty, and attempted suicide. She has survived these trials and continues to perform throughout Europe and the United States. With undiminished passion and in her unconquerable voice, this is Nina Simone's powerful memoir of her tempestuous life.

Midnight Mass

Author: Sierra Simone
Publisher: Sierra Simone
ISBN: 1732172242
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description
We are told that God will punish the wicked. That sinful men will reap what they sow. We are told to scourge our souls with prayer and pain to become clean once again. Well, here I am. Wicked and sinful. Desperate to become clean…even though it feels so good to be dirty. But even I never expected what came next. Even I never expected my punishment to come so soon. ***Midnight Mass is a novella and a sequel to Priest. It is not necessary to read Midnight Mass to read Sinner.***

What Happened, Miss Simone?

Author: Alan Light
Publisher: Crown Archetype
ISBN: 1101904887
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

The Holy Or the Broken

Author: Alan Light
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1451657854
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Praised as "brilliantly revelatory...a masterful work of critical journalism" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), The Holy or the Broken is the fascinating account of one of the most-performed rock songs in history--Leonard Cohen's heartrending "Hallelujah." How did one obscure song become an international anthem for human triumph and tragedy, a song each successive generation seems to feel they have discovered and claimed as uniquely their own? Celebrated music journalist Alan Light follows the improbable journey of "Hallelujah" straight to the heart of popular culture.