There is a serious drought here and (if I am not banned, or atleast until I am), I am going to my part to help re-hydrate the vicinity..

We will start with Fela. Atleast the first two posts will briefly cover him. Not sure how many of you are familiar with Fela, but trust me, you should definitely pick up his material. He was a great activist/artist/poet/thinker/musician etc. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few things some hiphop artists have used of his as samples.
I will give some information about his son, Femi, who is soooo much like him.

Fela Anikulapo-Kuti

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Born in Abeokuta on 15th October 1938 as Olufela, Olusegun, Oludotun Ransome-Kuti, he was to be known by one name only: Fela."My father was very strict, I thought he was wicked. He kicked my ass so many times. It was tough in school under our father. That's how he understood life should be, cause he read the Bible: 'Spare the rod and spoil the child.' My mother, she was wicked too. She kicked my ass so much man -- systematic ass kicking. [But] on the whole, they were beautiful parents, they taught me heavy things. They made me see life in perspective. I think if they had not brought me up with these experiences, I do not think I would have been what I am today. So the upbringing was not negative."


By the age of eight, he began playing the piano and organ. He became his schools pianist, playing at morning assemblies. As a young teen, he played in a band called Cool Cats. His rebellious side was also beginning to emerge: at age sixteen he formed a club called 'The Planless Society', with just seven members, its sole aim was to violate all school rules. Fela also edited the journal of the club; 'The Planless Times Publication'. This was swiftly banned by the school authorities.

His political side was equally being nurtured by his activist mother Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. She was a key figure in the nationalist struggle and took Fela to political rallies. When Fela was 18, she introduced him to Kwame Nkrumah, Fela has since said that the experience 'changed his life'.

In 1958, at the age of nineteen, Fela went to Britain to further his education. He studied Classical Music at the Trinity College of Music, concentrating on wood wind instruments. He also formed a jazz band with his best friend Jimo Kombi Braimah (J.K), called Koola Lobitos.

By 1961, he had met and married his first wife Remi Taylor. By 1963, he was back in Nigeria working at the then Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation as a radio producer. This stint didn't last long, he chose to concentrate on his re-formed band Koola Lobitos. As 'highlife' was the 'in' sound at the time, Fela decided to play something completely different calling it 'highlife jazz'.

In 1967, he made a trip to Ghana to get more gigs and began to contemplate a complete turn around of his music. He settled on root African music, which he christened Afrobeat. He returned to Nigeria and established a club called Afrospot. With the Biafran war in full force he decided to leave the country again, this time to America. Fela has said of this time, "I wasn't politically minded at all. I made my comments as a citizen. I was just another musician, playing with Koola Lobitos and singing love songs, songs about rain, about people...what did I know?"

America in 1969 was at the peak of its Civil Rights movement. Fela met and fell in love with Sandra Smith (now Sandra Isidore), whom was to leave an indelible mark on him. She introduced him to the ideologies of the Black Panthers, the reform of the Civil Rights activists and gave him books written by Black radicals. Fela has said of this indoctrination, "Sandra gave me the education I wanted to know. She was the one who opened my eyes." "He was very important to many people," says Sandra Isadore. "Right now, I think about those people that he left behind. Those in the compound that he gave employment to. Those that he took in off the streets. Those that would not have had a place to stay or a job or a future had it not been for Fela. Fela was a very generous man. This is the man that I know. He gave opportunities to many. At the same time, he was like a common man. He was very simple. He didn't need a lot of flair. I know it sounds strange, but . . . when he came [to America], I said 'Fela, you're a star, I should hire a limousine.' He said, 'No. Can all my band members go in the limo?' If everybody couldn't go in the limousine, then he couldn't have it. He would not be separated. He didn't put himself above any of them or anyone." He lived more life in 58 years than most could in 116. "Fela will make no apologies for nothing," says Sandra. "He lived his life his way, the way he wanted to live it. It can definitely be said he had a full life. He twisted his shoes his way, nobody told him what to do. I fought with him on many occasions. It was not easy dealing with Fela Anikulapo Kuti. From the very beginning it was a fight, but it was fun. It's the end of an era for me."


Fela also composed what he called 'his first African hit song' titled, 'My Lady Frustration', under a new band name; Nigeria 70. This was well received by American audiences.

It is best to listen to Fela himself as he describes the process of his transformation after one evening of argument. Says Fela: "... I must have said something because she said, `Fela, don't say that. Africans taught the white man. Look, the Africans have history", I said, `They don't have... No history man. We are slaves'. She got up and brought me a book. She said I should read it". "Sandra gave me the education I wanted to know. She is the one who spoke to me about Africa. For the first time I heard things I'd never heard before about Africa". Thus, the genesis of the myth. The new knowledge that Fela acquired, he would try henceforth to translate it into the medium of his music. He would set a whole generation ablaze. And because such fires of enlightenment held dangerous implications for those, outside and within, who would rather keep Africa enslaved, singing senseless hossanhas, Fela had turned himself unwittingly into a marked man. "I came back home with the intent to change the whole system. I didn't know I was going to have... such horrors! I didn't know they gonna give me such opposition because of my new Africanism. How could I have known? As soon as I got back home, I started to preach.... and my music did start changing according to how I experienced the life and culture of my people". The first task then, after the lessons of Sandra had sunk in, was to find a new and appropriate mode of music to express his new understanding. Clearly the imitations of jazz and highlife of the Koola Lobitos had become inadequate, and so had the usual soporific lyrics of pop music. The now enlightened musician sought around for a new source of inspiration. James Brown, Victor Olaiya had become turned, in the new dispensation, to obsolete gods. Fela searched for something more ancient and yet more modern, closer to Africa and more authentic. He was later to find a model at last in the music of Ambrose Campbell, that that genius who has influenced more than a generation of African musicians.

Keyed up with all his new ideas, he returned to Nigeria. By 1971, he had changed the name of his band from Nigeria 70 to Africa 70, and his night club from Afrospot to the Shrine. His music equally reflected the change surging through his mental state of mind. He at last had his first National hit record with 'Jeun Koku' (Eat and Die), with the new direction of his music. Fela also wrote (he paid for the space) for the Daily Times, a column titled 'Chief Priest Says'. Here, he blatantly composed vitriolic speeches against the Nigerian government. This laid a firm foundation for future clashes between the two.

That was the beginning of his trouble with the authorities. In Nigeria, power has always been, since Independence at least, in the hands of a certain elite, made up of men who got their wealth through being the local agents of white companies. Fela's message, that we should stop serving the whites, that we should develop our own black resources instead, was a direct threat to this ruling class. His message, that we should turn away from the colonial religions, because they had been and were still the instruments of enslaving our minds, turned the numerous Christians and Muslims against him. His message finally, that men should be free, and that uninhibited sex was a natural and joyful expression of that freedom, frightened parents, teachers and priests. Fela had come to challenge the system in short, and the system has always had its police ready to crush such challenges. With unprecedented savagery, the ruling class launched its forces against the rebels of the Shrine.

The year 1975, saw the change of his 'slave' name from Ransome to Anikulapo ( meaning 'one who has death in his pocket'). Of the numerous altercations Fela has had with the Nigerian government, 18th February 1977 will forever remain a milestone in his life. His family house, called Kalakuta Republic was besieged by Nigerian soldiers. The house was consequently set on fire. The damage ensued cannot be quantified, however, valuable possessions; like a tape of his forthcoming film 'Black President' perished. Dozens sustained malleable injuries. His 78 year-old mother whom was thrown out of a window, died months later as a result. Fela himself ended up with a cracked skull, amongst other injuries which affected his capabilities on the trumpet and saxophone. He never recovered financially either. He also served time in jail for his role of 'safe guarding his person and property'. This incident led to the now very famous songs 'Unknown Soldier' and 'Sorrow, Tears & Blood', released in 1977 and 1979 respectively.

In 1978, in a total act of defiance against moral and social issues, Fela married 27 women in one traditional ceremony. This event was televised around the nation. Two days prior, which was to be the original ceremony, his long-standing lawyer Tunji Braithwaite, denounced the union(s) just minutes before it was to take place in front of the nations press and reporters. Many years later, in 1986, When Fela later divorced his wives, he explained that "I do not believe any more in the marriage institution. The marriage institution for the progress of the mind is evil. I learned that from prison. Why do people marry? Is it to be together? Is it to have children? People marry because they are jealous. People marry because they are possessive. People marry because they are selfish. All this comes to the very ugly fact that people want to own and control other people's bodies. I think the mind of human beings should develop to the point where that jealous feelings should be completely eradicated."

.

"Oooooooooooooooooh", recalls Fela. "I was beaten by police! So much... How can a human being stand so much beating with club

and not die?"


The irony of it was in fact that the attack, brutal as it was, was to prove the mildest compared with future assaults. The Shrine would be repeatedly raided, the members of the Africa 70 jailed, brutalized and maimed, but the place would go on irresponsibly, even changing its name to Kalakuta Republic, until that fateful day in 1977 when the military junta in Lagos sent a thousand soldiers to raze it down. The details of that savage day are too known and too frightful to bear repeating here. But the spirit of the Shrine did not die. In so brutally and repeatedly subjecting Fela to persecution, the authorities helped to raise his name to the level of myth. They used so much force and savagery that their victims came to be celebrated as martyrs. And the military found that, though they had power to crush bones and burn houses, they could not even dent the indomitable spirit of Fela and his followers. And it was a memorable expression of that defiance and indomitable courage that on September 10, 1979, the day before Obasanjo handed power over to the civilians, Fela and his people defied all the guards to lay the coffin of his mother right on the doorstep of Dodan Barracks, as a statement of the ultimate futility of state power over the liberty of the human mind.

In 1979, Fela formed the aptly titled Movement of the People (M.O.P) political party. His slogans of campaign were tantamount to his maverick life style. His bid for presidency was without success, as his party was disqualified from the elections. This is also the year, Fela proceeded to deride the then head of state; Olusegun Obasanjo, by presenting him with his late mothers coffin. This dire straits was detailed in his hit song 'Coffin for Head of State'.

The Nigerian government, perhaps exasperated by the sole antics of Fela, had previously nominated him as a member of the Police Public relations committee. In 1981, Fela scorned this nomination by removing the berets of two police traffic wardens. Suffice to say, he was once again arrested and detained for his actions. Fela also changed the name of his band from Africa 70 to Egypt 80.

On leaving the country for a tour of America in 1984, Fela was arrested at Murtala Mohammed International Airport, for failing to declare the sum of £1,600. He was found guilty of currency trafficking and sentenced to a term of ten years imprisonment. He was released after serving 20 months, by the Chief of General Staff; Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, whom saw Fela's conviction as a 'disgrace to the Federal Government!' Fela himself said of the incident,"...the authorities didn't want us to go to the US to play, but I never expected them to do anything as low as this."

Now a free man once again. He toured America, introducing his music to a new generation. He performed at a Amnesty International benefit in New Jersey, alongside the likes of U2 and Peter Gabriel. Thus, the Mayor of Berkeley, California named 14 November 1986 'Fela Kuti Day'. On returning to Nigeria, he released, amongst others, the diatribe 'Teacher don't teach me nonsense' and 'I go shout plenty' anti-apartheid albums - a direct attack on the Botha, Reagan and Thatcher leadership(s).

As to Pan-Africanism, Fela often espoused its tenets. "That is the only way the Africans can benefit from their environment," he said in 1986. "The way Africa is cut up now and the way the individual African governments behave in Africa is negative to progress. This is why we see the unified Africa as the ultimate. Because Africa is not unified, that is why South Africa can operate [in apartheid]."


Over the following years Fela continued to lock horns with whichever government was in power. In 1993, he was arrested and charged with murder over the death of one his 'boys' at the Shrine. He was later exonerated of any wrong doing after serving several months in jail. in 1996, two unknown gunmen opened fire on his residential home. Fela was unhurt but six people sustained serious gunshot wounds.

The year 1997 marked the beginning of the end: Fela played his last public paying show on 7th March at the Muson Center. By April, he was again in the clutches of the police. Yet another raid on the shrine culminated in Fela being detained for possession of and trafficking in drugs. He was paraded on national television in hand and foot shackles. Major General Musa Bamaiyi claimed Fela was being detained mainly for rehabilitation purposes, so Fela can be 'weaned off a drug he has been addicted to over the years'

By the time he was released two weeks later, his lawyer Femi Falana had filed a 10million Naira law suit against National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. Fela's shrine had been occupied by the NDLEA. In mid-July, Fela collapsed at his home and was rushed to hospital. Towards the end of the month, speculation had reached fever pitch over his health. A national newspaper announced his death - this prompted Dr. Beko Ransome-Kuti to issue a press release, on the 24th July to quell such rumors; "He is responding to treatment", he announced.

Fela's view of death and fear itself were among his defining characteristics. He told biographer Carlos Moore in This ***** Of A Life: "Death doesn't worry me man. When my mother died it was because she finished her time on earth. I know that when I die I'll see her again, so how can I fear death? . . . So what is this motherfucking world about? . . . I believe there is a plan . . . I believe there is no accident in our lives. What I am experiencing today completely vindicates the African religions. . . I will do my part . . . then I'll just go, man. . .Just go!"


On the 2nd August 1997, at 5:30pm approximately, Olufela Anikulapo-Kuti died from heart failure arising from complications of the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. As Fela had said; "when you think you die, you're not dead. Its a transition." - With his faithful Nigerian Green Grass accompanying him on his journey, he may well be in transition, smoking away, looking and just laughing

To the Pan-African world, Fela was a towering figure who arguably combined elements of pure artistry, political perseverance, and a mystic, spiritual consciousness in a way that no other individual ever has. Musically, he achieved a level comparable to Miles Davis, James Brown, Thelonius Monk, and Bob Marley. At times, he was a Peter Tosh or a Sun Ra, yet more. Politically, he subscribed to the point of view of Marcus Garvey, Kwame Nkrumah, Malcolm X, and Kwame Ture. Spiritually, less is known about Fela, except that his spiritual vision grew from the African tradition and his belief in the sublime power of musicians.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

*Words about Fela**

Fela was sweet; perhaps not an adjective that would normally be used to describe this tornado of a man, but Fela was sweet to me. The sweetness that I perceived in him emanated from his love for humanity; particularly for those who had drawn life's short straw. Hundreds of people depended upon Fela for a living. Many more than he needed to run his Lagos club, The Shrine, or to play in his band.

I saw him as a social engineer, concerned with issues of injustice, corruption, the abuses of power. He was ready to lay his life on the line in defense of such causes, which he did on countless occasions. For his trouble he was beaten with rifle butts, endlessly harassed, imprisoned, vilified by the authorities, despised by bourgeois society (whose sons and daughters were captivated by him) His house was once burned to the ground by a thousand soldiers after they had raped and beaten his followers, thrown his mother and brother from a window, both of whom suffered fractures (his mother was ultimately to die from her injuries) Each time they were to beat him, though, he always bounced back with a vengeance, stronger than ever. It is my view that the only thing that kept him alive and the ultimate source of his strength, was the love the people had for him.

And his music - the rumble of thunder and the crack of lightning - layer upon layer of sublimely interwoven rhythm and melody, tangled in a delicious knot of divine inspiration. Deliberate conspiracies of hot brass woven around the intricately hypnotic consistency of bass and guitar lines, all driven by the dual forces of lavish percussion and Fela's own passion for the precision of his musical vision. Heaven help any musician who might stray from his given task. Fury would descend upon him until, in mortal terror, he would struggle his way back into the groove.

The icing on the cake of a Fela performance were his singers and dancers; fabulous glittering unreal creatures from another world who would exude waves of sensuality and downright sexiness that you could cut with a knife. All in all, thirty something people on stage, each playing their part in what Fela called "the underground spiritual game".

In the centre of this audio-visual feast for the senses, Fela reigned supreme. He was everywhere at once; playing keyboards, soprano or alto, the occasional drum solo, a sinuous dance from one side of the stage to the other and then it was time to sing, the ever-present spliff held in his elegant fingers. No moon and toon and joon for this articulate firebrand. Only eloquent biting poetic social observation, expressed with a breathtaking clarity and natural authority which placed him firmly in an unsurpassed realm in which he had no equal. Perhaps Pavarotti can break a wine glass at sixty paces, maybe Bono can make girls wet their pants with a flick of his sweat laden hair , but for sheer mastery, panache, style and guts nobody could or can beat this guy. To get a bead on who he was, once he had recorded a song, he would never perform it again on stage, no matter how record company execs may plead.

Recently, however, he had ceased his endless harangue of politicians, big business,organised religion, the military, police etc (once, when running for President of Nigeria, he proclaimed that his first act upon being elected would be to enroll the entire population in the police force. Then, he said, "before a policeman could slap you he would have to think twice because you're a policeman too." The authorities ultimately refused to allow him to enter the race. Too bad.

He now saw politics as "a distraction" saying that our only task was to enter into contact with our own spirit, without which "we would not survive". His last years were spent in spiritual contemplation. He never left the house, except twice a week to go to the Shrine and play. He wouldn1t arrive until two in the morning. There would be fifteen hundred people waiting for him and he would finish at dawn.

And now he has gone. Aids they said. As far as I'm concerned it was one beating too many which had weakened his body sufficiently to allow disease to enter. He was a giant of a man, but a man nevertheless. The system can only take so much.

I went to his funeral. A hundred and fifty thousand people or so gathered in Tafawa Balewa Square to pay their last respects. Bands played, people queued endlessly to file past his glass coffin. We then ran with the coffin to a hearse (there were still thirty thousand people queuing up) to make the 20 mile journey to the Shrine where Fela1s children were to carry out a private ceremony for family and friends. In a cavalcade of vehicles we rode through Lagos City behind a band in the back of a pick-up truck playing Fela tunes. The road was thronged with tens of thousands of people, until we came to the brow of a hill. I looked down across the valley to the distant horizon. The road was filled with people from one side to the other and as far as the eye could see. A million people or more, and even more came as we passed through each neighborhood. Seven hours to cover 20 miles and the band never dropped a note. As we came nearer to Ikeja, we began to worry. What would happen when we reached Pepple Street, a small side street in which The Shrine was situated. How, in fact would we reach The Shrine with a million people in front of us? Night fell as we drew near. We turned in to Pepple Street. There was hardly anyone there. One million or more people had decided that it was not appropriate for them to be there.

Fela was my friend for the past fifteen years. Our fourteen year working relationship had grown from that friendship. I regret his passing but celebrate his life. He will live forever through the incredible legacy of more than 50 albums of music which he has left us and through the love and respect of the millions of people who knew him, from near or far.

He was finally laid to rest in front of his house, Kalakuta, in Ikeja on the morning of Tuesday 12 August, 1997. His son, Femi, played a plaintive sax solo. A gentle rain fell; like perfume.

Rikki Stein
Manager and Friend

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

Same beat, different tune as Femi follows Fela


Femi Kuti is only the latest member of a distinguished family of musicians and activists to achieve fame in Nigeria - his grandmother was a leader in the campaign against British colonialism, while his father, Fela Kuti, was a legendary singer in his own right.



In fact, for millions of Nigerians, there will never be another Fela - a man who enjoyed drugs and women with the same energy and gusto with which he performed music and stood up to successive military governments.




Fela Kuti: Femi's father was a legend in Nigeria
Ultimately Fela paid the price both for his courage and his lifestyle. Imprisoned several times, he died of Aids two years ago.

Now Femi is forging his own career. While the soldiers whom his father railed against have finally left power, Femi believes that even in the new, democratic Nigeria there is still plenty to complain about.

"People want drastic change," he says. "Look around you. Electricity, water, roads, education - are these things too much to ask for in a mineral-rich country like Nigeria?"

Afrobeat's heir





Femi Kuti has developed the sound pioneered by his father
Femi Kuti has taken his father's musical style, and depending on your point of view, made it more accessible to an international audience, or else, drained it of some its original energy.

The style is Afrobeat - a fusion of west African rhythms with American jazz.

Afrobeat is, above all, the music of Lagos, the largest city in black Africa, a violent and fascinating place. Nigerian musician Tunde Kuboye, who was a close friend of Fela Kuti, says Afrobeat and Lagos go together.

"I call Lagos a city without pity", says Kuboye. "It's like a stunningly beautiful woman who is also very dangerous - you're attracted to it, but it's cunning, a combination of good and bad."

African answers





"Why shouldn't the African man sit down and think about his own technology, his own medicine?"
While Femi has already offended some in Nigeria with the sexually explicit content of his songs he is, in fact, a far more conservative person than his father.

He believes that Africa must turn back on itself to find the solutions to enduring problems like political instability and economic decline.

"Why shouldn't the African man sit down and think about his own technology, his own medicine?" he demands.

"Why do we have to copy what America says? Why do we have to wait for Europe to say 'jump' before we jump?"

As Femi sets off on another European tour, he hopes that his growing international fame will help present a more rounded picture of his home country to the rest of the world - that while the negative stereotypes of corruption and crime do contain some truth, he can demonstrate that Nigeria is also a vibrant and creative society.


Femi Kuti and Positive Force will play Hollywood House of Blues on Sunset Sunday September 12th


******

Note:
If you all have not yet picked up "Red Hot Riot", the compilation put together by Femi, you are sleeping so much until it is almost criminal.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

wow, thanks for the insight, i will be sure to pick up some of their work, real revolutionaries

__________________
"QUOD ME NUTRIT, ME DESTRUIT--AUT VINCERE AUT MORI"

O Y D

*FluidMusic*


*Poetic Scriptures Moderator*

Definitely, Fluid Moonz.

On another note, if the lack of appreciation for culture/struggle here is but a microcosm of the future of hiphop generations, I weep for them, trust me.. I weep for them.

**
Nina Simone
**

Remember Talib Kweli's track "Get By"? Well this is who he sampled for that track. Also, his song "Four Women" was based on Nina Simone's "Four Women". You will never understand the present until you go to its source. Sankofa..



Eunice Waymon was born in Tryon, North Carolina as the sixth of seven children in a poor family. The child prodigy played piano at the age of four. With the help of her music teacher, who set up the "Eunice Waymon Fund", she could continue her general and musical education. She studied at the Julliard School of Music in New York.
To support her family financially, she started working as an accompanist. In the summer of 1954 she took a job in an Irish bar in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The bar owner told her she had to sing as well. Without having time to realize what was happening, Eunice Waymon, who was trained to become a classical pianist, stepped into show business. She changed her name into Nina ("little one") Simone ("from the French actress Simone Signoret").
In the late 50's Nina Simone recorded her first tracks for the Bethlehem label. These are still remarkable displays of her talents as a pianist, singer, arranger and composer. Songs as Plain Gold Ring, Don't Smoke In Bed and Little Girl Blue soon became standards in her repertoire.
One song, I Loves You, Porgy, from the opera "Porgy and Bess", became a hit and the nightclub singer became a star, performing at Town Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Newport Jazz Festival. Even from the beginning of her career on, her repertoire included jazz standards, gospel and spirituals, classical music, folk songs of diverse origin, blues, pop, songs from musicals and opera, African chants as well as her own compositions.
Combining Bachian counterpoint, the improvisational approach of jazz and the modulations of the blues, her talent could no longer be ignored. Other characteristics of the Simone art are: her original timing, the way she uses silence as a musical element and her often understated live act, sitting at the piano and advancing the mood and climate of her songs by a few chords.
Sometimes her voice changes from dark and raw to soft and sweet. She pauses, shouts, repeats, whispers and moans. Sometimes piano, voice and gestures seem to be separate elements, then, at once, they meet. Add to this all the way she puts her spell on an audience, and you have some of the elements that make Nina Simone into a unique artist.
When four black children were killed in the bombing of a church in Birmingham in 1963, Nina wrote Mississippi Goddam, a bitter and furious accusation of the situation of her people in the USA. The strong emotional approach of this song and the others on her first Philips record ("Nina Simone In Concert"), would become another characteristic in her art. She uses her voice with its remarkable timbre and her careful piano playing as means to achieve her artistic aim: to express love, hate, sorrow, joy, loneliness - the whole range of human emotions - through music, in a direct way.
One moment, she is the actress who turns a Kurt Weill-Bertold Brecht song as Pirate Jenny into great theater, then, after a set of protest songs, she will sing Jacques Brel's fragile love song Ne Me Quitte Pas in French.
Although Nina was called "High Priestess of Soul" and was respected by fans and critics as a mysterious, almost religious figure, she was often misunderstood as well. When she wrote Four Women in 1966, a bitter lament of four black women whose circumstances and outlook are related to subtle gradations in skin color, the song was banned on Philadelphia and new York radio stations because "it was insulting to black people…"
The High Priestess would walk different paths to find the adequate music to spread her message. Her first RCA album, "Nina Simone Sings The Blues", includes her own I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl, Do I Move You, a haunting version of My Man's Gone Now (again from "Porgy & Bess") and the protest song Backlash Blues, based on a poem written for her by Langston Hughes.
Her repertoire includes more Civil Rights songs: Why? The King of Love is Dead, capturing the tragedy of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Brown Baby, Images (based on a Waring Cuney poem), Go Limp, Old Jim Crow, … One song, To be Young, Gifted and Black, inspired by Lorraine Hansberry's play with the same title, became the black national anthem in the USA.
She surprised even her most devoted fans with an album on which she sings and plays alone. "Nina Simone And Piano!", an introspective collection of songs about reincarnation, death, loneliness and love, is still a highlight in her recording career.
Her gift to give new and deeper dimensions to songs resulted in remarkable versions of Ain't Got No / I Got Life (from the musical "Hair"), Leonard Colhen's Suzanne, Bee Gees songs as To Love Somebody, the classic My Way done in a tempo doubled on bongos, Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues and four other Bob Dylan songs. This gift culminated on her record "Emergency Ward": she set up an atmosphere that left no illusions and no escape, performing two long versions of George Harrison songs: My Sweet Lord (to which she added a David Nelson poem, Today is a Killer) and Isn't it a Pity.
But Nina tried to escape anyway. She felt she had been manipulated. Disgusted with record companies, show business and racism, she left the USA in 1974 for Barbados. During the following years she lived in Liberia, Switzerland, Paris, The Netherlands and finally the South of France, where she is still residing.
In 1978 a long awaited new record was released, "Baltimore", containing the definite rendition of Judy Collins' My Father and an hypnotizing Everything Must Change.
Her next album, "Fodder On My Wings", was recorded in Paris in 1982 and is based on her self-imposed "exile" from the USA. More than ever determined to make her own music, Nina wrote, adapted and arranged the songs, played piano and harpsichord and sang in English and French. The 1988 CD re-release of this album included some bonus tracks, e.g. her extraordinary version of Alone Again Naturally, reminiscing her father's death.
In 1984, one of her concerts at Ronnie Scott's in London was filmed, resulting in a captivating video, featuring Paul Robinson on drums. A song from her very first record, My Baby Just Cares For Me, became a huge hit and "Nina's Back" was not only the title of a new album; her concerts would take her all over the world again.
In 1989 she contributed to Pete Townsend's musical "The Iron Man". In 1990 she recorded with Maria Bethania; in 1991 with Miriam Makeba. That same year, her autobiography, "I Put A Spell On You" was published. It was translated into French ("Ne Me Quittez Pas"), German ("Meine Schwarze Seele") and Dutch ("I Put A Spell On You, - Herinneringen").
In 1993 a new studio album was released. "A Single Woman" includes several Rod McKuen songs, Nina's own Marry Me, her version of the French standard Il n'y a pas d'amour heureux and a very moving Papa, Can You Hear Me?
No less than five songs from her repertoire were used in the 1993 motion picture sound track of "Point Of No Return" (also called "The Assassin, code name: Nina"). Many other films feature her songs (e.g. "Ghosts of Mississippi", 1996: I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free, "Stealing Beauty", 1996: My Baby Just Cares For Me and "One Night Stand", 1997: Exactly Like You).
Her music continues to excite new and young listeners. Ain't Got No / I Got Life was a big hit in 1998 in The Netherlands, just as it had been there 30 years before…
Together with her regular accompanists Lepoldo Fleming (percussion), Tony Jones (bass), Paul Robinson (drums), Xavier Collados (keyboards) and her musical director Al Schackman (guitar), she still excites audiences all over the world. At the Barbican Theatre in London in 1997 she sang Every Time I Feel The Spirit as a tribute to one of America's first and foremost leaders in the cause of Civil Rights, peace and brotherhood, singer and actor Paul Robeson. More spirituals and "blood songs" would follow: Reached Down And Got My Soul, The Blood Done Change My Name and When I See The Blood.
Nina was the highlight of the Nice Jazz Festival in France in 1997, the Thessalonica Jazz Festival in Greece in 1998. At the Guinness Blues Festival in Dublin, Ireland in 1999 her daughter, Lisa Celeste, performing as "Simone", sang a few duets with her mother. Simone has toured the world, sung with Latin superstar Rafael, participated in two Disney theatre workshops, playing the title role in Aida and Nala in The Lion King. She is currently working on her upcoming debut album, "Simone Superstar".
On July 24, 1998 Nina Simone was a special guest at Nelson Mandela's 80th Birthday Party. On October 7, 1999 she received a Lifetime Achievement in Music Award in Dublin.
In 2000 she received Honorary Citizenship to Atlanta (May 26), the Diamond Award for Excellence in Music from the Association of African American Music in Philadelphia (June 9) and the Honorable Musketeer Award from the Compagnie des Mousquetaires d'Armagnac in France (August 7).
Dr. Simone passed away after a long illness at her home in her villa in Carry-le-Rouet (South of France) on April 21, 2003. As she had wished, her ashes were spread in different African countries.
The Diva, who was as well an Honorary Doctor in Music and Humanities, has an unrivalled legendary status as one of the very last 'griots". She is and will forever be the ultimate songstress and storyteller of our times.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

I have no idea what any of that said

(mainly because I didnt read it)

__________________

Perhaps this is why you do not understand the Patriots Act or the Constitution or any other legal document that is affecting you everyday, either.

Reading is fundamental.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

they dont affect me, please dont hurt me revolution style

__________________

Okay. Here is a complimentary LOL. Hopefully you feel better and will stop spreading your nonsense in this particular thread. If you don't, hey that's your right too. If you want to show the board and everyone else how politically unaware you are and how immature your mind is, who am I to try to get you to be/do otherwise? Good day.

I aim to reach those who feel to listen and noone else.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!

you askin for a lot if you askin us to read all that...when im bored i MIGHT read that shit...can you atleast summarize it

Thanks then, I'll spread my nonsense here, to me that was an invitation

__________________

JDot, again, I will summarize nothing.

LOL The irony in this is that if such a thread is so boring to (either of) you, why not go to a more interesting one? Sorry, I don't post about the lifestyle of partyin' and bullcrappin'. I am an activist, just trying to spread another view of the bigger picture to the struggling masses. If you dig that, cool and if you do not dig that, well that's cool, too. In the meantime, I will continue to do what I do as you continue to do what you do.

__________________
Aluta Continua.. Victory is certain!