Summary
The chanteuse, pianist, composer and civil rights activist Nina Simone is the choice of another female musician who has made a career of defying convention; Joanna Macgregor. Presented by Matthew Parris.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Once you've wrapped up this podcast, how about trying a very British cult? |
| 0:06.0 | What happens if the person you trust with your future isn't what you think they are? |
| 0:10.0 | I did feel the whole time he was watching me Yeti. I saw a footprint and that really gave me gusmas. |
| 0:16.4 | Or people who knew me. Emme, I remember every secret, every lie. I'm the only one who knows the truth. |
| 0:23.0 | Discover more of our biggest podcast from 2003. |
| 0:27.0 | Listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.0 | Radio 4 on Music, Re-Re-releasing the best of the BBC Radio 4 Music Archive. |
| 0:37.0 | This is Radio 4 on Music with me, John Wilson. |
| 0:42.0 | Nina Simone was famously denied a place at the Curtis Institute of Music in |
| 0:46.6 | Philadelphia because she was black, ending her dream of becoming a concert pianist. |
| 0:51.6 | It was a moment that defined the rest of her life both musically and |
| 0:54.9 | politically as we're about to hear in this edition of BBC Radio 4's great lives. |
| 1:00.3 | Simone went on to create a hugely influential mix of jazz, |
| 1:03.7 | R&B, gospel and soul that in the mid-60s became part of the soundtrack to the civil |
| 1:09.2 | rights movement. |
| 1:10.4 | pianist Joanna McGregor nominates Nina Simone for great live status and plays some of her favorite recordings. |
| 1:16.5 | BBC journalist and Simone Fan Mark Coles recalls the difficult job of interviewing the famously irascible high priestess of soul in her later years, |
| 1:26.1 | Matthew Paris is in the chair. |
| 1:27.6 | I know I get up people's noses, my guest on great lives today once said, |
| 1:34.0 | everyone wants to pigeonhole you. |
| 1:36.0 | Early on in my career I somehow got labeled Bach, John Cage and a bit of jazz, |
| 1:41.0 | but the fact is I love to play Beethoven and that infuriates people it doesn't |
... |
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