whole purpose of this primal scene is to establish her defiant difference and distance from an entertainment industry that grew to love her but not contain her .
It ’ s said that she ordered a glass of milk before performing . The only people who ordered milk in bars were G-men , FBI agents allegedly working under cover but giving themselves away by a doughty refusal to drink on duty . Whatever else this new girl was , she wasn ’ t a G-man . We don ’ t know what kind of gauntlet she ran from bar to piano and from piano back to bar for her break . There may have been racial epithets , ugly sexual propositions , or just uncomprehending stares . The journey back and subsequent ones may have been subtly different for what was immediately obvious was that the gal could play . She programmed some classical themes , including a little of her beloved Bach , and she played gospel tunes , hardly the kind of fare that the regulars had come to expect , but they seem to have tolerated it . At the end of her first night , Harry Steward wanted to know why she hadn ’ t sung . “ I ’ m only a pianist ”, she replied , but Harry wasn ’ t listening and made it clear that if she didn ’ t sing tomorrow night , the job was no longer hers .
And so begins the creation myth of the other , perhaps ultimately dominant component of Nina Simone ’ s art , her unforgettable singing voice . Anyone who heard her speak in later life remembers a voice that had only a few years earlier led her to be chosen as class valedictorian back in Tryon : firm , deep , somewhat declamatory , but turning hard and flat when confronted with a question or an assumption that she didn ’ t like . It projected , and she would have made a fine stage actress , had she not been possessed of a personality that could only admit of itself and not , even for art , inhabit another . Nina
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