9/7/2022
Performances and Artists
When seven-time Grammy-nominated vocalist Nnenna Freelon gives advice to aspiring performers, she emphasizes one point.
“It’s not a race,” says Nnenna, a contemporary jazz artist who has performed with icons such as Ray Charles and Al Jarreau. “At any point in your life, you can set yourself on a path that fits in with your purpose.”
She knows this firsthand.
Although she grew up in a musical family and sang as an amateur throughout her life, she studied hospital administration in college and began her early career in that field.
Only after she married and had children did she feel the calling to pursue music professionally – and juggling her family and artistry proved challenging.
“I arranged rehearsals at my house, so I didn’t have to pay for a babysitter. I practiced my scales at night, when the children were resting,” Nnenna says, adding that mentors like Ellis Marsalis helped her rise professionally.
Her passion and talent gained rapid attention. Nnenna’s powerful vocal interpretations have led her to build a widespread fanbase, on top of performing at the White House and headlining at the Asia Pacific Economic Summit in front of hundreds of world leaders.
“That 10 people doing the same song on the same instrument can each have an individual expression of that, is part of what drew me to jazz,” she says. “It is really the last bastion of creating individuality.”
The show will span a wide range of songs with a common theme, including hits from Marvin Gaye, Irving Berlin and Hoagy Carmichael.
“It’s all a mash-up of love and time,” Nnenna says. “All the songs have something to do with time – time you wish you had, or time you thought you had, time as it’s expressed in linear (form), and also timelessness.”
Opening for Ray Charles
Of her many career highlights, Nnenna’s favorites include opening for Ray Charles in Vienne, France.
“I don’t think I’ve bever been so nervous in my entire life,” she recalls of the performance her manager had wrangled for her. “I’d gone from singing at the Sheraton at Thursday nights to singing in another country.”
She learned an important lesson about the connection between an audience and performer, she adds, when she witnessed how the audience “poured out love” during Charles’ performance.
She feels grateful for the exposure this concert gave her, she adds.
“That was a situation that helped me grow up a little bit,” she says. “I was so super new, and it was also a way for putting you in front of a potential audience, people who haven’t heard of you before.”
Songs of Healing
The songs Nnenna will perform at The Smith Center all stem from her album, “Time Traveler,” which became an album of personal healing.
She began work on the record years ago as a birthday gift to her husband of 40 years, Phil Freelon, with the songs representing the couple’s favorite melodies.
“It’s a collection of tunes, some of which are from the American Songbook, some of which are tunes he and I both loved from the ‘70s, that speak of love and longing, that speak of joy,” she says.
But she put the project on hold, upon her husband’s diagnosis with ALS. After he passed away in 2019, the subsequent COVID-19 lockdown gave Freelon the seclusion to face her grief by throwing herself back into the album.
“It’s a weird thing, but this project came directly out of a grief experience,” she says. “I call it a sonic love letter, not only to (my husband) in particular, but to anyone who’s lost someone.”
When she performs these tunes as a duet with a pianist at Myron’s, she hopes audiences can embrace this as a time to find common ground and share a meaningful experience.
“It’s not going to be a sad show, I promise,” she assures. “It will be life. It will be real.”
SEE THE SHOW
Nnenna Freelon performs November 9 in Myron’s at The Smith Center – CLICK HERE for tickets.