The musician who inspired Nina Simone to dedicate her “life to music”
While it can often take some people an entire lifetime to master their instruments, with some arguably never reaching a point of perfection, some musicians were evidently born to play theirs, and were gifted with an innate ability to perform. Often regarded as not only one of the most gifted jazz musicians but one of the greatest vocalists and piano players to have ever lived, Nina Simone was certainly an artist who seemed as natural as they come.
Noted for her versatile contralto voice, Simone was adept at performing in a variety of styles, and she incorporated elements of folk, gospel, and pop into her music, as well as jazz music, for which she was best known. However, despite this plethora of sounds that informed her style, her first love and greatest inspiration came from a much earlier exposure to classical music, and one composer, in particular, was hugely impactful on the young Simone’s musical ambitions.
Raised in North Carolina, Simone began taking piano lessons at the age of nine under the tutelage of an English woman called Muriel Mazzanovich, who Simone noted for being a stern and imperious figure to be learning from at such a young age. Simone, who was born Eunice Waymon, was initially petrified of her taskmaster of a tutor, but after some time, she warmed to her strict ways and learned to love the compositions of one particular classical figure, who she would go on to devote her craft to.
Speaking about the rigidity of her lessons with Mazzanovich in her autobiography, I Put a Spell on You, Simone said that when she was learning to play, they “only played Bach and he seemed so complicated and different.” This was an intimidating thing for the young learner to have imposed upon her, and she expanded in her book on how “in those first lessons, it seemed like the only thing she said was, ‘You must do it this way, Eunice. Bach would like it this way. Do it again.’ And so I would.”
However, as she grew in confidence and ability, Simone would realise just why exclusively learning Johann Sebastian Bach’s works was helping her improve her skills. “As time went on,” Simone recalled, “I understood why Mrs. Mazzanovich only allowed me to practice Bach and soon I loved him as much as she did. He is technically perfect. Once I understood Bach’s music I never wanted to be anything other than a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music.”
Simone would eventually go on to study at the Juilliard School of Music under a scholarship, and also unsuccessfully applied to the prestigious Curtis University after completing her single year at the institute. In spite of this, she was not deterred from pursuing her aspirations to perform, and in an effort to hide the fact that she had developed a growing love for the sinful sounds of jazz from her disapproving parents, she ditched her birth name and began to play in local nightclubs as Nina Simone.
When she eventually moved away from these ambitions of becoming a concert pianist and shifted towards performing in a jazz style, Bach remained hugely important to the way she played her instrument, and many of the features of her playing still incorporated the baroque influences that the German composer was known for. However, even though she was hugely influenced by the teachings of Mazzanovich and her love of Bach, Simone made everything she touched sound like her own, and her unique gift for composition and arrangement is still marvelled upon today.
