Nina Simone was one of the most distinctive, elusive, and brilliant musicians in jazz history, but she came to the genre reluctantly. Born in Tryon, North Carolina as Eunice Waymon in 1933, she had her heart set on being a classical pianist. In 1954, economic circumstances persuaded her to take a gig at an Atlantic City club, and she changed her name so her mother wouldn’t discover she was playing “the devil's music.” Simone forged a singular hybrid she would mine over the rest of her career, zeroing in on the essence of an ever-expanding repertoire of jazz, folk, blues, soul, pop, rock, classical, and gospel music. She toggled nonchalantly but authoritatively between genres, personalizing lyrics, melodies, and allusions in a kind of proto-remix style that revealed an unbounded musicality. In the ’60s, she recorded a series of politically charged songs—“Mississippi Goddam,” “Four Women,” “Backlash Blues”—that elevated her appeal beyond the jazz market. In the ’70s, she spent an increasing amount of time performing internationally—upbraiding audiences that weren’t suitably engaged—reinterpreting the works of The Beatles (“Here Comes the Sun”), Randy Newman (“Baltimore”), and other songwriting luminaries of the era.