BOOK/MAGAZINE: Nina Simone: The Soloist-Life of the Troubled "High Priestess of Soul" Serves up Bountiful Detail but Skimps on Insight

A Nina Simone song is recognizable from its opening notes. First comes the piano, keys striking at the ineffable point where classical music meets jazz, blues, and pop. Then the voice, deep and searching, taking ownership of the words, whether they are Leonard Cohen or George Gershwin, traditional spiritual or original composition. Otherwise known as the "high priestess of soul," Simone was indisputably one of a kind, and Nadine Cohodas's new biography, "Princess Noire," tells her story in copio...

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