You can't be different if you look at it. Being gifted is different. I had that in my piano playing. I'm very thankful for that. I'm very aware of that. The style and what I fed is just me. I never worked at it. It just happened.
Nina SimoneEverything that happened to me as a child involved music. It was part of everyday life, as automatic as breathing.
Nina SimoneI had heard blues and jazz all my life but I was never aware that it was associated with nightclubs and drinking.
Nina SimoneTalent is a burden not a joy. I am not of this planet. I do not come from you. I am not like you.
Nina SimoneAs far as piano players are concerned, Oscar Peterson is my very favorite. I also like McCoy Tyner. I think that the big jazz stars, both now and in the past...how shall I say it? These guys are as great as Bach, Beethoven; all of them. People don't know it yet. If jazz survives and is put on a pedestal as an art form, the same as classical music has been through the years, a hundred years from now the kids will know who they were, with that kind of respect.
Nina Simone