Virtual Mentor No. 1: Nina Simone

It took a while to figure out how I was going to do this. So I'm stealing James Altucher's practice of having a virtual mentor every week. I'm adding one twist: the person must be a notable figure who didn't attend university or dropped out.

Basically, each week I study the life of a someone new - paying close attention to the challenges they overcame. I want to make include a wide spectrum of people from art to business to technology. I don't necessarily have to be familiar with the notable figure I choose but at least find their story interesting at first glance or admire the work they produced.

This week's virtual mentor is Nina Simone.

Simone at a concert in Morlaix, France, May 1982

I chose Ms. Simone because I wanted an excuse to listen to Pastel Blues non-stop this week :).

Some snippets from the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians (www.jazz.com)

"Fiercely honest, Simone was admired for her eccentricity and individualism. She was known for her spirited personality on and off the stage, which included flirting with audience members and voicing her opinions about social topics of the time."

"Simone sought the help of a private instructor to help her audition for the Curtis Institute, but was ultimately denied after a supposedly excellent audition. Simone said she later found out from an insider at Curtis that she was denied entry because she was black. This heightened her anger over the racism which was pervasive in the United States during this period."

"In 1954, Eunice Waymon became Nina Simone. Simone changed her name because she didn't want her mother to know that she was playing the devil's music."

"In 1969, Simone renounced America and decided to live as an expatriate. During this period she lived in Barbados, Liberia, Switzerland and the United Kingdom before finally settling in Cary-le-Rouet, France."

"On April 21, 2003, Simone passed away after a battle with breast cancer, two months shy of her seventieth birthday."

"Simone also received two honorary degrees in music and humanities from the University of Massachusetts and Malcolm X College. Ironically, two days before she passed away, the Curtis Institute, the very institution that had rejected her at the beginning of her career, awarded Simone an honorary degree."

Some snippets from the Nina Simone Webpage (ninasimone.com)

“Critics started to talk about what sort of music I was playing,” writes Nina in her 1991 autobiography I Put A Spell On You, “and tried to find a neat slot to file it away in. It was difficult for them because I was playing popular songs in a classical style with a classical piano technique influenced by cocktail jazz. On top of that I included spirituals and children’s song in my performances, and those sorts of songs were automatically identified with the folk movement. So, saying what sort of music I played gave the critics problems because there was something from everything in there, but it also meant I was appreciated across the board – by jazz, folk, pop and blues fans as well as admirers of classical music.”