Nina Simone

As a lower-middle-class white boy growing up in exclusively white suburbs, Nina Simone, in the early ‘60s, was a revelation to me (obituary, April 22). Her recordings introduced me to a world suddenly filled with passion, color and a white-hot desire for justice in an unjust world. That desire for justice continues to this day, every day, inspired, in part, by this courageous woman’s impassioned life.

Eric Johnson

San Pedro

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Thank you for your magnificent tribute to Nina Simone (editorial, April 23). Although she battled emotional demons (she once broke down in tears in a live interview I did with her on KCRW), she was also a woman of remarkable class. One evening in October 1961, I went to see her in New York’s Greenwich Village, the site of her “Live at the Village Gate,” one of the finest live albums ever recorded. There were only seven people in the Gate that evening, but she did an entire set for us -- and an encore! Roger Steffens

Founding Editor, The Beat

Echo Park