Mississippi Goddam and the High Priestess of Soul
By JaRon Eames
I was there. At the legendary Village Gate on the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Streets in Greenwich Village, New York. It was 1985 and I’d come to see The High Priestess of Soul, Nina Simone. I’ve never forgotten that year; I still remember it to this day. It was the year I got sober. Drinking a half gallon of vodka - for many years, no less - put me in a strait jacket in the nut house. Getting sober has thus always been on my mind.
The Gate, as it was called back in the day, boasted some of the most important names in the history of music. In the 1960s one could listen to Miles, Monk, Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy, Errol Garner, every single one of them, for only $2.50. Even Aretha Franklin and Jimi Hendrix eventually came to The Gate.
Art D’Lugoff was the owner and I got to know him well. He told me so many wonderful stories when I interviewed him for my book Historical Jazz Conversations. (Nat Hentoff, by the way, a syndicated columnist for The Village Voice, wrote the introduction to that book). Art had, in fact, managed Nina Simone for about a year, but he said it was primarily for his own self-defense. She was a great talent, but a bit mashuga; crazy, that is. We both laughed at that one.
Art also told me that Nina was one of the most important improvisors in jazz. She took plenty of risks - and did so many things - that most singers wouldn’t even consider. I really liked Art and thought that he was such a good man. He even shut down The Gate in March of 1965 so that he could join Langston Hughes and Nina in the Selma to Montgomery Marches that were led by Martin Luther King.
I was fortunate enough to have seen Ms. Simone at least a few times. Besides The Gate, I also saw her in 1985 at the Blue Note, which was in Greenwich Village, too. But she was drunk. In fact, she came on stage with a bottle of Champagne. She ranted and raved about life in general, but then, she sat down at the piano, and held court.
You could hear a pin drop when she performed her classic songs: Mississippi Goddamn, I Love You Porgy, To be Young, Gifted, and Black and I Wish I Knew How it Would Feel to be Free. The latter was written by my friend Dr. Billy Taylor in 1963. It was originally titled I Wish I Knew.
Hearing this magnificent lady play piano was a sheer delight. An unforgettable experience, to tell the truth. I also saw one of her last performances at Carnegie Hall in 2001. Some people are born with mental Illness, but one's surroundings, certainly in her case, helped to push her over the edge.
Nina Simone couldn’t do Broadway or Hollywood movies or become a great classical composer. That was reserved for the American beauty version of a female musician. But the world will never forget Nina Simone’s magic.
Nina Simone was a genius at the piano, and she had a brilliant voice. She’s also remembered, unfortunately, for her on-stage antics. The outbursts of rage and anger; the attacks on anyone and everyone, but especially whites, who made up the majority of her audiences after her fame shot to the outer limits.
Why was Nina Simone so angry? When she was 12 years old and living in North Carolina she gave a classical recital. It was her concert debut. The year was 1945. Her proud parents sat in the front row. They were, however, forced to move to the back of the hall so that their seats could be given to whites. That twelve-year-old girl then refused to perform until her parents were returned to their original seats. Which they did.
Now that’s 'chutzpah'. But this bitter pill of racism followed her like a shadow everywhere she went. A civil rights’ soul had then been born.
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JaRon Eames was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on December 21st in 1953. He is the youngest of six children. His late father, Louis L. Eames, started the first Black bank (along with 6 other men) in Baton Rouge in the 1950s and that bank eventually grew into the 7th largest Black Savings and Loan institution in the United States. JaRon attended Southern University in Baton Rouge for one year, and then moved to NYC in 1972. He worked for Japan Air Lines for several years but quit to devote his time entirely to music. At one point he lived in Berlin, and then continued to perform in clubs in Germany thereafter. In 1998 he and Ms. Torrie McCartney hosted the first Billie Holiday Jazz Festival, held at the Billie Holiday Theater in Brooklyn, NY. JaRon has also performed several times in Japan, including Nagoya Japan’s World Fair in 2005. Besides being a noted singer, archivist and journalist, JaRon is equally renowned for the many interviews has conducted with countless jazz greats, such as Nancy Wilson and Joe Williams. He is also recognized for his many books and recordings; all of which are available on the Internet.
Contact information: www.jaroneames.com