"Jazz is a white term to define Black people. My music is Black classical music."

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Nina Simone (via humanformat)

I can’t seem to find out when exactly she said this and all the sources are tracing back to the BBC obituary, but I’m guessing this was said much later in her career. The context of this quote goes along with her annoyance with the comparison to Billie Holiday. And anyone who knows Holiday and Simone’s music will find that comparison to not only be extremely ridiculous but also an example of a racial view of defining black musicians, something Simone is talking about in this quote. 

I remember during her early years, she said “all that is to me is jazz.” And well, jazz to a lot of black musicians was not just music but a way of life; their way of life as black people. I could source quotes about jazz and blackness in the U.S. from hundreds of black musicians and compare that to the few white musicians denying blackness in jazz music. But I’m guessing Simone sees it differently this time around.

Whiteness always takes something away from black people though, a large idea which music journalist Greg Tate talks about. This culture of jazz has been poisoned and it erases black people just the way hip-hop does because of the narrow views of blackness. It reminds me of the Santigold interview where people called her music “hip-hop.” She lashes out and talks about how ridiculous it is that of all things, they’d label her as hip-hop just because she’s black. It also reminds me of Scott Joplin known primarily for composing ragtimes on the piano. He thought of his music as serious works of art, comparing it to European traditions and in the same sense Simone saw her own music…Joplin treated his music as Black classical music. But a lot of his music at the time were considered a joke and to his disappointment from the audience, not taken seriously at all because of racism.

(via intoxicatedspirit)

(Source: butimtemptedtaintedandsavaged, via v1ctims)