What Happened, Miss Simone?

What do you know about Nina Simone? For my admiration of her and her music, I didn’t know all that much, and thought a book like this would be informative. Yes, this is a beginning to end biography, but feels like a series of events strung together, without any deep analysis. “What Happened, Miss Simone?” covers her tumultuous life, if brushing lightly over some heavy, serious incidents. I think this is a fair depiction of the woman, not entirely sympathetic for giving so much attention to her weaknesses, but we can see she was a strong person, and a true and original artist.

Simone has a hazy discography, and from what I read I would believe that she was cheated out of many royalties from her recordings, especially via bootlegs. She was a difficult perfectionist, and her handling of performances was very interesting. Nina Simone was a classical pianist, but ended up a singer first and pianist second. Her style doesn’t fit in any one bag, she was classical and jazz at the same time, folk, African, and so on. Her protest music interfered with the standard trajectory of a pop singer, but she needed to use her stage to full effect, both artistically and socially.

She lived all over the world, never staying in one place very long. Her daughter Lisa and second husband Andrew Stroud, who also served as her manager for much of her career, took the brunt of Nina’s uncompromising behavior (Stroud also beat Simone at least once). The book doesn’t provide a medical diagnosis, but it seems Nina Simone suffered some sort of mental illness, perhaps bipolar disorder, and was overworked, for everything she had to offer the world. This was tough to read about – she often became violent, and had the whole world working against her, yet she left a huge legacy in music and civil rights.

There were few people who knew Simone for who she really was. Guitarist Al Schackman stands out, a musical partner and constant friend, there especially when needed most. Their playing together also made up some of the interesting music descriptions, which could also have been more substantial. The words of jazz experts George Wein and Stanley Crouch are included, but the dense use of quotations makes for a choppy read. Some handwritten artifacts appear, usually with their transcriptions, but the diary entries are more effective. With all the material to work with, I think more effort could have been made to make a better written biography. In the end, the best way to learn who a musician really is, is to listen to their music.

Note: I received a free copy of this title through BloggingForBooks in exchange for an honest review.