Nina Simone knew she was a “genius” at six months old
The story for most artists is exactly the same. They grow up, and at some point, music finds them. Maybe it’s through another artist performing on their TV, or a family member playing in the house or a certain record they remember hearing. Usually there’s something like that, a spark—but not for Nina Simone.
After that, the initial spark has to be nurtured. Usually, there have to be lessons or at least a family member around to teach them, or even just the support of some kind of mentor. Enthusiasm is one thing, but the process of gaining a skill is a whole other. Typically, skill is separate from talent, although one certainly supports the other, begging the question whether talent is possible without skill first.
Some would say no. When thinking about other icons, say, Jimi Hendrix, his talent is a result of skill. It’s the same for Prince, whose virtuosity was impressive because of the breadth and depth of his skill. A lot of icons got better and better over time because of this, as their skills were honed and improved upon, making the point that talent can’t be slept on; it still requires practice.
But Simone’s story defies all of this. It stands out from the rest; there was no initial spark, no real lessons, no real need to learn. Instead, to her, it was merely a “gift from God”, that’s all.
“I didn’t get interested in music, I was a gift from God and I know that,” she said straight up in 1984 during a show at Ronnie Scott’s. That’s how she’s described her origin story as an artist. She doesn’t reference any inspiring artists or a long, hard-won journey of learning her instrument. Instead, she just said she was born like that, end of story.
“I was born a child prodigy,” she declared without an ounce of shyness about it, “I was born a genius”. Born in North Carolina in 1933, she was lucky that way. Her father was somewhat of an entertainer, but really, there would have been no one around to teach Simone the piano to the proficiency she was able to hit, or really help her get started if it didn’t seem naturally born into her.
The memory lived in her head almost like a kind of spectre. “So, three years old, I remember a piano playing to the house. That’s the way I have to express it, cos I was poor, and I was a child, so I didn’t know who bought the piano,” she explained to her crowd as if she wasn’t even there and this mystery piano merely played of its own accord. But that’s how it felt to both Simone and her family when the child sat down and started playing a song.
“I remember playing a song, ‘God Be With You Till We Meet Again’, in the key of F, and of course I didn’t know what a key was,” she said, before demonstrating to the room that she did by the ‘80s.
It’s a strange story, and she understood that. It was strange in the moment too, as she admitted that, at first, her family were more freaked out than celebratory, telling the crowd, “At six months old, my mom says that I knew what notes were, and of course, on paper, and it scared her”. The line between “a gift from god” and a kind of possession is thin, but as Simone’s talent endured, and as the family watched her ease at the instrument, they realised what they had on their hands was a rare prodigy, and that they needed to nurture it.
But Simone did the starting stretch by herself, without even realising. There was no need for the painful early lessons learning the basics, as she seemed to already know. She got a head start and soon, even as a young child, she was using her talent for good. Recalling an infamous story where a child, Simone, refused to play at a recital when segregation moved her parents from the front row in favour of white people, protesting at the piano until her mum and dad were back in the best seats.
