Nina Simone: Live @ Ronnie Scotts

[Music] [Music] I know what God is but I do not believe in any denomination I think it's necessary and I know that ritual is necessary and for whatever people need of course they should do it but I do not believe in any denomination wherever I am if I need the Solitude and I often do and the meditation and the quietness and the communication with God I'll go to any church if I can find that atmosphere but I will not get hung by it nor now will I get involved in it to the the point where it dominates uh my thinking and uh this one is better than that one no I will not do that music is my God from the depths of Slumber his eyes s spiral staircase of [Music] wakefulness I whisper God God [Music] God I [Music] wish I my food and when I break my fast nightly separation from [Music] Thee I taste thee and mentally say God God [Music] God no matter where I [Music] go the spotlight of my mind is ever turn on the in the battle dinner all my [Music] activity my silent walk [Music] C when Bo [Music] stor Tri streak and worries how at [Music] me I drown the [Music] clam so much [Music] noise so many people talking you God all around me all about me all over me God God [Music] God no matter where I go SP of my mind he's me [Music] the batt my activity my silent cry God God God God God [Music] said no matter where I [Music] go Spotlight of my mind every time [Music] down and in the back in with my activity my silent walk cry is ever God God when my mind weaves dreams with breads of memories when the Mind dreams withs memories on that magic clock I do OSS I God God God God God God God God God God God God God God when my mind weaves dreams with threads of memories on that magic claw I do God God God God [Music] God and waking and eating working dreaming meditating chanting divinely loving someone my soul constantly arms I'm Hur by [Music] I was born a child prodigy D I was born a genius which means that um at 6 months old my mom said that I knew what notes were and of course uh uh uh on paper and it scared her so 3 years old I remember a piano came into the house that's the way I have have to express it because I was poor and I was a child so I didn't know who bought the piano and I remember playing uh a song God be with you till we meet again in the key of F and of course I didn't know what the key was so I leave that for you too scramble so I uh I didn't get interested in music I was a gift from God and I know that two love songs one of them is called if you knew if you knew how I missed you you you would not stay away today don't you know how I love you stay here my dear with me I can't go on without you your love is all I'm living I'm living far I love all things about you your heart your soul my love I need you here reide me forever and day day what be touch me love you I love you I do [Music] thank you Kate Jones myani again don't you realize Mr Smith don't you realize what $30 buys today just some stockings and that's [Music] it I come from [Music] Havana my mother was white as you are she often said to [Music] me my child don't sell yourself for just a dollar or [Music] two the way that I [Music] did cuz if you end up [Music] like me God help you [Music] kid so think it over this little money that you're giving me Mr [Music] Smith no no I'd only seen it twice in my whole life the first time I was too protected and my parents did understand that I was a gift and I had a boyfriend and I had was approved by the community and I played in churches and I studied I did what they taught me so I didn't really know very much about that we were poor but I didn't know much about it I knew it existed but it didn't touch me it touched me first time when I gave a concert uh a recital at age 12 and they wanted to put my Mom and Daddy on the back row in the concert in the little Recital Hall and I remember standing up quite bravely and said oh no my mom and dad will sit on the front row that was first and the second one came was when I went to to Curtis and I I I I passed the test and I know it was good I I was at that time kind of humble not too much these days but um and I didn't understand it I was playing sh Charney and list and Rak manov and bar and I know it was good and uh but I and we made records of but I didn't understand why I didn't get that scholarship for for for for for for anything and um there were people around me who knew about my talent as well and they said Nina it's because you you are black and I I that chocked me and I didn't take the time to let it sink in I said well I just go where I can make some money to help my parents who had moved from North Carolina to Philadelphia at that time to be with me as I studied so I was quite aware that they needed some money to to help them so I took a job two weeks later in a popular Studio playing for kids who couldn't sing worth a d half half an hour popular music and that's how I creeped in Show Business [Music] yeah [Music] a bird fell to Earth reincarnated from her birth she had F in her brain she had dust in inside her wings she flitted here and there United States Switzerland and England and Africa everywhere with pottering her brain and dust inside her wings oh how sad oh oh how [Music] sad oh how [Music] sad she watch the people how they lived they'd forgotten how to give they have F in their brains and dust inside their [Music] wings she watched them how they tried to live and give they had forgotten how to give they had father in the wings there dust inside the brains oh how [Music] sad sad oh how [Music] sad [Music] she watched them how theyed to [Music] live they've forgotten how to give they father in B brain dust inside that wind I can't stay here I can't stay [Music] here round and round and they go where they stop nobody know and and they go where no stop nobody know where they don't stop nobody know and still so good bye [Music] two sometimes I think that musicians all worship music and they don't many of them just do it for the money and many of them do it for Glory or to make a record or something and I have to be thrown sometime to realize there are very few musicians who actually listen to someone who hopefully knows more than they do and especially if they can follow that's a rare musician so he has that Paul Robinson has that gift you promise me you be my man if you promise me you be my man I'm going to love you the best I can stick to promise man that you made me to the promise man that you made me to the promise man that you made me you stay away from Ros Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy you me I cook if you want me to I if you want me to [Music] ieat [Music] mean Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy ohy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy you want me to for you if you me to C for you if you want me to cook and so for you outside of you there is no place to go pleas don't treat me so me now don't treat me don't treat thean man ever seen to the prom man you made me now to the promise man you made me to the promise man you made me you stay away from Ros Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy Oh Daddy that's [Applause] it [Applause] you there is no to go now please don't treat me soon me now please don't treat me me now please don't me on me now you the meanest man ever SE to the prom man you made me now s to the promise man you made me now s to the promise man you made me [Music] now oh Dy me good oh oh daddy love me good now oh Oh Daddy love me good now daddy yes I love it the structure the cleanliness the tone the nuances the implications the silences the Dynamics the pisos the fimos all have to do with Sound and Music and it's it's as close to God as I know the cleaning of of classical music not all of it some of it's too cold but Bach was a master and let me say in this breath also many many Jazz um Masters knew what they were doing gold train D glp who's still with us he's does lots of Comedy but he's a great Master uh my Davis is a master Duke Ellington was unquestionably one and um art Blakey is one I wish to God I could play with him um and uh uh uh and I said cold train and we have of course art tat sometime and one of the greatest pianists in the world is Oscar Peterson I can only think of those four or five Masters I only like Masters I love you poy don't let them K me don't let them handle me and drive me mad or make me too tired if you can keep me I want to stay up you forever I'd be so glad in her I love you [Music] boy don't let them take me don't let them handle me with his hot hands if you can keep me I want to stay here with you forever I think I found my [Music] man someday I know he's coming back to call me he's going to handle me and hold me so it's going to be like dying py deep inside me my when he comes I know I'll have to go I love you [Music] pgy don't let them take me don't let them handle me and drive me [Music] mad you can keep [Music] me I want to stay here you forever two days after forever with you [Music] forever cuz I got my my man the other woman finds time to Manicure her nails The Other Woman is perfect where her rival fails and she's never seen with Pinker in her [Music] H The Other Woman enchants her clothes with French [Music] perfume The Other Woman keeps fresh cut flowers in each room there are never Ties That scattered [Music] everywhere and when a old man comes to call on [Music] her he'll find her waiting like a lonesome Queen cuz when she's my side it's such a change from old routine [Music] The Other [Music] Woman will always cry herself to [Music] sleep the other woman will never have his love to keep and as the years go by The Other [Music] Woman will'll find that she spends the rest of her life [Music] alone Mississippi God [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Dam Alabama's got me so upset Tennessee made me lose my rest everybody knows about Mississippi God damn Alabama's got me subet the whole damn world is making me lose my rest everybody knows about God damn can't you see it can't you feel it it's all in the air I can't stand the pressure much longer somebody say a prayer everybody's got me so upset whole damn world is making me lose my rest everybody knows about D hound dogs on my Trail School children's in jail black cat cross my path I think every day's going to be my last Lord have mercy on this land of mine we all going to get it in due time I don't belong here I don't belong there I've even stopped being leing in prayer this song as you know is written by Nina Simone it's very much like 1932 in which that time beral BR and Kirk V wrote another song called moonover Alabama and fact is they wrote several songs from mahagan but there isn't time to do them all what we're going to do is combine Mississippi godamn with the moon ever Alabama show us the way to the next whiskey bar don't ask why you know why but we must find the next whiskey bar but if we don't find the next whiskey bar I tell you must die I tell you must die I tell you I tell you I tell you we must [Music] die oh moon [Music] Alabama we now must say goodbye we've lost our good old [Music] mama and must have whiskey you know why don't ask why home Moon babama we now must say goodbye we've lost our good old M our M and must with you know [Music] why show way to the next little dollar don't ask why you know why but we must get some money but if we don't get any money I tell you must die I tell you must die I tell you I tell you I tell you we w die Alabama's got me so upset hold damn things making me lose my rest everybody knows about Mississippi God damn hound dogs on my trail school children in jail black cat cross my path think every day going to be my life sing it for two reasons first of all they familiar with it is one of the biggest songs I ever made secondly it's important in 1984 because no one really uh commemorated or Remembered in my opinion enough Martin Luther King and and uh uh Mississippi gam brings him back plus you have a group a British group here I heard it uh four or five days ago uh they're called oh dear something you too I don't know the British group or not you two and they have made a hit out of a song called something about love out of love or something a big hit now and it's about the story of Dr M Luther King did you know that suoi it's true and so so that's not dead in their minds the youth need to know the history of America since America is on top they need to know what we did there and so I'm happy that I'm still singing it because that group obviously had been thinking about it too and in 1984 they were able to put together a sound that became a hit which means that he is still now alive in the eyes and the ears and the brains of many young people I think that's important and that's my contribution Alabama's got me upet whole damn making me lose my rest everybody knows about Mississippi godamn H dogs on my trail school children in jail black cat cross my path I think every day is going to be my [Music] lives [Music] Lord have mercy on this land of mine we all going to get it into time I don't belong here I don't belong there I've even stopped believing in prayer don't tell me I'll tell you mean my people just about do I've been there so I know they keep on saying go slow well that's just the trouble washing the [Music] windows picking the cotton just playing Rock too damn lazy thinking is crazy where am I going what am I doing I don't know I don't know just try to do my very best stand up be counted with all the rest cuz every everybody knows about this go pick it line school boy cuts they try to say it's a communist plot all I want is equality for my sisters my brothers my people and me you lied to me all these years you told me to wash and clean my ears and talk real fine just like a lady and you'd stop calling me sister sad but this country is full of lies we all going to die and die like flies I don't trust you anymore you keep on saying go slow well that's just the tble desegregation pass participation unification do things gradually will bring more tragedy why don't you feel it why don't you know it I don't know I don't know you don't have to live next to me just give me my equality cuz everybody knows about Mississippi everybody knows about Alabama everybody knows about Jesse Jackson everybody knows about Ronald Reagan everybody knows about Mississippi godamn [Music] godamn they wanted me to be the first black classical pianist in America for there were none and there still aren't really this has nothing to do with the great jazz Masters but we only the black people in America only have one and his name is Andre watts and they don't completely accept him because he his mother or his father was German so that's what I was being prepared to be and that's all that was on my mind and when I'd come home I'd play jazz and gospel and and folk and uh my mom didn't allow it but I'd play it when she was gone and my dad would let me know when she's coming home uh that was my pleasure but I studied to become this last from day to [Music] day so I turn another [Music] way with a love a kind hello some small talk with a few friends that I know I forget get I'm not over you for a while song is dedicated to my lover who's gone from me from Liberia West Africa a weak and easy [Music] grain and a smile to put them in with so many other lives to listen to and some [Music] music that I've got to do I forget I'm Not Over You for a [Music] while days go by with no empty [Music] feeling when I work and work and work I forget until I go home and touch my ha and feel my skin and I remember what you've [Music] gone people say to me you need company when you have some time to spend drop [Music] around when you need a friend they forget I'm not over you for a [Music] while I can't go on without you your love is [Applause] on I'm living I know whatever be T [Music] me I love you zy I love you I [Music] [Applause] [Music] do woo woo [Music] [Applause] [Music] right there right there woman she drink Cofe sheink tea SE then go home woman in well right on her head I thought you knew the song you were clapping in Rhythm I thought you knew the song that would do it see woman in R where all right on her head what I really want you to do yeah yes I want the song [Music] woman best white sleep all day all night down keep it steady see woman rest in green we Silk Stocking gold it's nice isn't [Music] it what is it what you [Music] want they don't pay enough money for [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that I don't do that I don't have to but you have to [Music] sing [Music] one Dred iny rested in red rest in brown rest in white in Black sleep all day on her back see I learned to conserve uh what I had vocally because it was so little and to support him with the immense power of His Hands and so doing the the audience uh um concentrates on the voice but without the piano is that very much it has an awful lot of knowledge I am a doctor of music but I have to be always cant of the limitations of it in fact it's with this interview I am hoping there's some left for tonight thank you have you ever been to Carnival the song is dedicated to the people of Trinidad and Carnival [Music] 1984 I sing just to know that I'm alive I play just to feel that I'll survive and this death that's taking place where holess is just the case I think sing just to know that I'm alive well the Mounds they don't move no they don't and the people they don't dance and they won't just shout I sing I sing I sing I sing just to know that I'm alive [Music] hey this Nina shimone ladies and gentlemen Nina Simone well I love them to love me and if they're going to have an idol they should have a good old that's me but I would like them when they come to see me to be able to relax enough to enjoy being one family at a time and then when I go home then they can put on the records I'll be the ID but when they're with me be with me enjoy me let me enjoy them I think this is what you've been waiting [Applause] [Music] for my baby don't care for shows my baby don't care for clothes my baby just cares for me my baby don't care for cars and races my baby don't care [Music] for this Taylor is not his style and even let a turn a [Music] smile something he can't can't see my baby don't care who knows it my baby just cash for [Music] me [Music] w [Music] baby my baby don't care for shows and he don't even care for clothes cares for [Music] me my baby don't care cars and races baby don't [Music] care Taylor is not his style you're cute and even L smile something he can't see I want to what's wrong with my baby [Music] my baby just get he just get his my baby just cares for me I love [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Simone gentl thank you Simone thank [Music] [Applause] [Music] you once more thank [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you there are a few people in this world who I feel since I am what I call a space g there are people who understand what I've just said who will see this program and uh we need staff that's proper to support Nina Simon we have a great manager we have some people around us but we need proper staff those of you who hear this and think you are proper or know that you are then Beware of the calling because I just come from God I think I said that clear enough and I do want to get married okay that's fine thank you very much indeed for talking to [Applause] me

Channel: Jazz at Ronnie Scott's

Views: 323,591

Keywords: Nina Simone (Musical Artist), Music (TV Genre), Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club (Venue), Singing, my baby just cares, my baby just cares for me, My Baby Just Cares For Me (Composition), God God God, Just In Time, Let It Be Me, The Other Woman, I Got Life, If You Only Knew, Young Gifted And Black, Moon Over Alabama / Mississippi Goddam, Because / My Father's Dream, Let No One Deceive You, American Pie, Just To Know That I'm Alive

Id: zQBwC_-BU1Y

Length: 56min 37sec (3397 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 18 2014