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Musician

Nnenna Freelon

Nnenna Freelon - © Freelon performed at the White House with flugelhorn player Clark Terry in 2006.

born on 28/7/1954 in Cambridge, MS, United States

Nnenna Freelon

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Nnenna Freelon, (born July 28, 1954)[1] is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger. She has been nominated for six Grammy Awards for her vocal work,[2] and has performed and toured with such top artists as Ray Charles, Ellis Marsalis, Al Jarreau, Anita Baker, Aretha Franklin, Dianne Reeves, Diana Krall, Ramsey Lewis, George Benson, Clark Terry, Herbie Hancock, and Terence Blanchard.

One critic described her as "a spell-binding professional, who rivets attention with her glorious, cultivated voice and canny stagecraft".[3] She has performed at Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Ellington Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Apollo Theater, Montreux Jazz Festival, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and more.

Life and career

Freelon was born Chinyere Nnenna Pierce to Charles and Frances Pierce in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was raised.[4] As a young woman, she sang extensively in her community and the Union Baptist Church and at St. Paul AME. She has a brother Melvin and a sister named Debbie. Nnenna graduated from Simmons College in Boston with a degree in health care administration. For a while she worked for the Durham County Hospital Corporation, Durham, North Carolina. From the Kennedy Center interview with Nnenna:

"I started singing in the church, like so many others. . . ." She suggests that her influences included several "not famous people", as well as such familiar names as Nina Simone and Billy Eckstine, artists whose records her parents played at home. "It's important to expose your children to a wide musical environment," she says, grateful that her parents did just that. Nnenna followed her grandmother's sage advice regarding those singing aspirations. "I did something that my grandmother told me: 'bloom where you're planted', 'don't get on a bus and go to New York or L.A., sing where you are'."[5]

Family

In 1979, she married architect Philip Freelon. She and her husband raised three children, Deen, Maya and Pierce, before she decided to perform professionally as a jazz singer.[6] Their son Pierce Freelon is a Hip-Hop artist, a visiting professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University and the founder of a website called Blackademics, where he has interviewed many notable figures such as Angela Davis, Maya Angelou, Nikki Giovanni, and Jesse Jackson.[7] Deen Freelon is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at American University studying social media and politics.[8] Daughter Professor Maya Freelon, is an award-winning visual artist.

Recording career

In 1990, Nnenna Freelon went to the Southern Arts Federation's jazz meeting and met Ellis Marsalis. "That was a big turning point. At that time, I had been singing for seven years. Ellis is an educator and he wanted to nurture and help. What I didn't know at the time was that George Butler of Columbia Records was looking for a female singer. Ellis asked me for a package of materials. I had my little local press kit and my little tape with original music. Two years later, I was signed to Columbia Records." She was in her late 30s when she made her debut CD, Nnenna Freelon, for Columbia in 1992. The label dropped her in 1994, and Concord Records signed her in 1996.[9]

In Maiden Voyage (1998), she leaves behind standard and comfortable conventions and releases an inner spirit that allows her to creatively soar to a higher dimension. Watch out! When a woman reaches this point there's no telling what will come next.[10] Freelon's seventh album, Tales of Wonder (2002), covers hit songs written and/or recorded by Stevie Wonder. She considers him one of the greatest artists of our time and describes how his music easily became her music, as it touched her life throughout the years. "A lot of Stevie Wonder's music is on the level of many other unique artists like Duke Ellington, like Thelonious Monk. When you hear Stevie, you know that's who it is. I put him in a genius class, he's fabulous."[11] On her Grammy-nominated release, Blueprint of a Lady: Sketches of Billie Holiday (2005), which comes highly recommended, Freelon pays tribute to the quintessential jazz vocalist Billie Holiday in the best possible way—without imitation and putting her own interpretations on material written by or associated with Lady Day. Her band, adjusted to fit the mood of each song, skillfully complements her at every turn. With Freelon is a group of veteran jazz artists who give her album a welcome presence. Tenor saxophonist Dave Ellis, trumpeter Christian Scott, and flutist Mary Fettig add stellar musical partnerships to the program. Freelon's long-term quartet of Brandon McCune, Wayne Bachelor, Kinah Boto, and Beverly Botsford provide cohesive accompaniment that serves as an intuitive accompaniment for her vocal offerings.

Babysong workshops

Nnenna Freelon is deeply involved in arts education as the national spokesperson for the National Association of Partners in Education, an organization with over 400,000 school/community partnership programs across the United States, dedicated to the improvement of the quality of American education by supporting arts education programs.[12] Freelon has also maintained ties to her hospital-work roots as her jazz career has flourished. Her Babysong workshops, which she launched at Duke University Medical Center in 1990, teach young mothers and healthcare providers the importance of the human voice for healing and nurturing. She particularly stresses the importance of parents singing to small children to enhance brain development.[13][14]

Recognition

Nnenna Freelon was awarded the Eubie Blake Award from the Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute, and the Billie Holiday Award from the Academie du Jazz. Freelon performed a film soundtrack, remaking Frank Sinatra's classic "Fly Me to the Moon" for The Visit movie, starring Billy Dee Williams. She also had a cameo as a nightclub singer in the 2000 Mel Gibson romantic comedy What Women Want, performing her trademark song "If I Had You". In addition, she has been nominated twice for the "Lady of Soul" Soul Train Award.[15] On February 21, 2001, Nnenna Freelon earned a standing ovation for her live performance at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards telecast in Los Angeles, performing Straighten Up and Fly Right.[16]

Discography

Year Title Genre Label Billboard[17]
1992 Nnenna Freelon Jazz Columbia 11
1993 Heritage 10
1994 Listen 20
1996 Shaking Free Concord
1998 Maiden Voyage 10
2000 Soulcall 13
2002 Tales of Wonder 7
2003 Church - Songs of Soul and Inspiration
Various Artists - Ooh Child - Nnenna Freelon
Gospel Utv Records 157
Live at The Kennedy Center, Washington D.C. Jazz Concord
2005 Blueprint of a Lady 13
2008 Better Than Anything
2010 Homefree

Grammy history

  • Career Nominations: 6
Nnenna Freelon Grammy Awards History
Year Category Genre Title Label Result
2005 Best Jazz Vocal Album Jazz Blueprint of a Lady -
Sketches of Billie Holiday
Concord Nominated
2001 Jazz Vocal Album Jazz Soulcall Concord Nominated
2001 Best Instrumental Arrangement
Accompanying a Vocal
Jazz Button Up Your Overcoat Concord Nominated
1998 Jazz Vocal Performance Jazz Maiden Voyage Concord Nominated
1996 Best Jazz Vocal Performance Jazz Shaking Free Concord Nominated
1992 Best Instrumental Arrangement
Accompanying a Vocal
Jazz Nnenna Freelon Concord Nominated

Source: Ed Keane Associates.[18]

References

  1. ^ Nnenna Freelon AllMusic biography http://www.allmusic.com/artist/nnenna-freelon-mn0000870011
  2. ^ DUBROVNIK SUMMER FESTIVAL, (Retrieved May 15, 2015)
  3. ^ Gourse, Leslie. The Golden Age of Jazz in Paris and Other Stories About Jazz, Xlibris Corporation (2002), page 153 - ISBN 0-7388-2592-1
  4. ^ Interview with Nnenna's husband, architect Philip G. Freelon, (Retrieved August 18, 2007)
  5. ^ Billy Taylor's Jazz at The Kennedy Center, (Retrieved August 18, 2007)
  6. ^ NPR (National Public Radio) Interview (Retrieved August 18, 2007)
  7. ^ Blackademics website
  8. ^ "Faculty Profile - Deen Freelon". American University. Retrieved 27 September 2012. 
  9. ^ The Profound, Introspective and Supremely Talented, Nnenna Freelon, (Retrieved August 18, 2007)
  10. ^ All About Jazz (Retrieved August 19, 2007)
  11. ^ Nnenna Freelon: Walking in Wonderland, (Retrieved June 7, 2002
  12. ^ National Association of Partners in Education
  13. ^ Baby Song Video
  14. ^ Boston Globe - June 9, 2006, Freelon not afraid to voice individuality, (Retrieved August 18, 2007)
  15. ^ IMDb: Resume Nnenna Freelon Bio
  16. ^ Take 6 & Nnenna Freelon - Straighten Up and Fly Right on YouTube
  17. ^ Billboard Chart History for Nnenna Freelon
  18. ^ http://www.edkeane.com/downloads/nfreelon.bio.09-10-12.xtended.pdf

External links

This page was last modified 14.09.2017 15:57:46

This article uses material from the article Nnenna Freelon from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.