![andy stroud andy stroud](https://chp-sf.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Andrew-Stroud-500px.jpg)
Andrew protected me from everyone except himself. She said in her diary: “All I did was work, work, work. She would walk out of concerts if people weren’t quiet, start arguments and smash things. Her first marriage lasted a year and she then wed ex-police sergeant Stroud.īut her mood swings were already apparent, say family and friends. Her singing voice, which she called a cross between gravel and coffee cream, soon attracted record industry bosses and her cover of Baby Just Cares For Me became a chart topper. “My mother was a preacher and I didn’t want her finding out I was playing the Devil’s music,” she said. That’s where she changed her name to Nina Simone. With her dreams of playing at Carnegie Hall shattered and needing money, she moved to Atlantic City where she played in seedy jazz bars until 7am. Nina, born Eunice Waymon, was spotted and given lessons by two white women who made her play Bach, Beethoven and Brahms for up to eight hours a day.īut she was snubbed for a top scholarship in New York at 19 because the colour of her skin. The film, the first to be commissioned and aired on Netflix, reveals Nina wanted to become the first US classical black pianist after learning to play at four. It also tells how she suffered appalling savagery from husband-manager Andrew Stroud – then battered her own daughter.Īnd she ended up broke and singing in a tiny Paris cafe after being snubbed by the US. It uncovers the anguish that spurred on the star to win 15 Grammy nominations with classics like Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood and Young, Gifted and Black. Liz Garbus’ film describes in powerful detail how that child pianist went on to become one of the most talented performers the world has ever seen… and a figurehead for the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.