Fran Landesman
1927-2011 lyricist, poet, performer
You're probably not yet familiar with the name Fran Landesman, but you might have hearde her lyrics. Don't worry, lyricists personalities mostly remain unknown - perhaps you've already come across her on a Miles Davis or Gil Evans album, with songs like ‘Nothing Like You’ or ‘ Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most’.
Born in New York City in the 1930s, she led an exciting life, characterised by the spirit of optimism of the Beat Generation. As part of this movement, she shared its critical attitude towards conformity, her enthusiasm for spontaneous creativity and excessive nightlife. In her own nightclub, the ‘Crystal Palace’ in St. Louis, she met numerous jazz musicians with whom she collaborated for a long time.
Landesman's career took off after her musical The Nervous Set - which even at the time tackled unconventional themes such as criticism of monogamous marriage and the upper class - was taken over on Broadway. She also wrote songs such as ‘The Ballad of a Sad Young Man’ and ‘It Isn't So Good, It Couldn't Get Better’ with Bob Dorough and Tommy Wolf, among others, which later became jazz standards.
She later published her own poetry books and appeared on stage as a performer herself. With a pinch of sarcasm, she did not shy away from writing humorously about the bourgeoisie, herself or the red light district.
When interest in the Crystal Palace cabaret theatre waned in the 1960s, she moved to London with her family. There, she regularly presented her own show at Club 606, frequently appeared on BBC Radio and performed on stage with cheerful energy well into old age - most recently at the age of 83.
Nina Simone
pianist, singer, songwriter, civil rights activist
Nina Simone was a singer, pianist, songwriter and civil rights activist. She was born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina in 1933 and began playing the piano at the age of three. Due to her family's closeness to the church, she was closely connected to church music and her musical talent was quickly discovered and encouraged.
She made her concert debut at the age of twelve, later studied at the Juilliard School in New York and then wanted to pursue a career as a classical pianist, which she, like many other Black artists, was denied due to racial discrimination.
She then began performing jazz and blues in the 1950s and quickly gained recognition with hits such as “I Put a Spell on You” and “Feeling Good”. Her music was not only an expression of her artistic abilities, but also a medium for drawing attention to social injustices. Particularly in the 1960s, Simone was actively involved in the civil rights movement and used her platform to fight for equality and justice.
Nina Simone's life was marked by both personal and public struggles such as mental health and racism, the meaning and scope of which is reflected in the music she left behind after her death in 2003.