walking upstream…
Nina Simone
photo: gerrit de bruin · cc by 4.0 ↗Nina Simone
Nina Simone trained as a classical pianist before a rejection from the Curtis Institute of Music pushed her toward nightclub singing, and she spent the rest of her career refusing to separate the two worlds — folding Bach-like counterpoint and Romantic piano virtuosity into jazz, blues, gospel, and pop. Her deep, commanding contralto and explicitly political material, from 'Mississippi Goddam' to her civil-rights-era recordings, made her one of American music's most uncompromising voices. She remains a foundational reference point for singers working at the intersection of classical technique and Black American song.
the sound in question
1965
SinnermanNina Simone
walk the tributaries ↓
Billie Holiday1930s–40s · Jazz / Vocal jazz
Simone named Billie Holiday among her key influences and recorded her own harrowing version of Holiday's signature anti-lynching song 'Strange Fruit' on her 1965 album Pastel Blues, an explicit act of tribute and continuation.
listen: upstream & here
1939
Strange FruitBillie Holiday
1965
Strange FruitNina Simone
listen forPlay Billie Holiday's original 'Strange Fruit' next to Simone's own 1965 recording — Simone strips the arrangement down even further, turning Holiday's restraint into something starker and more minimal still.
Johann Sebastian Bach1720s · Baroque / Classical
Simone's classical training centered on Bach, and she has said his counterpoint runs underneath her own piano style throughout her career — most famously on the widely noted Bach-derived piano intro to her recording of 'Love Me or Leave Me.'
listen: upstream & here
1722
Prelude in C Major, BWV 846Johann Sebastian Bach
1965
Love Me or Leave MeNina Simone
listen forPlay Bach's 'Prelude in C Major' and then the opening bars of Simone's 'Love Me or Leave Me' — the same rolling, arpeggiated left-hand pattern, a classical technique smuggled directly into a jazz standard.
Mahalia Jackson1950s · Gospel
Simone grew up playing piano for church revivals from age six, and the gospel tradition Mahalia Jackson made famous nationally runs underneath Simone's own recordings of spirituals and hymns throughout her career.
listen: upstream & here
1947
Move On Up a Little HigherMahalia Jackson
1962
Children Go Where I Send YouNina Simone
listen forPlay Mahalia Jackson's 'Move On Up a Little Higher' next to Simone's 'Children Go Where I Send You' — both channel the same call-and-response, church-service intensity, even outside a church.