Prior to her career - or rather, careers - as a jazz vocalist, composer, author, and actor, Nnenna Freelon was employed in the worthy but far less glamorous field of health-care administration. She says, however, that in her late 20s, while working as a North Carolina-based administrator in the early 1980s, "I suddenly had an epiphany that I was not happy, even though I loved working in a hospital environment. Because even in that job, I used to find myself in patients' rooms singing.
"I just had a nay-saying kind of narrative," she continues. "You know, 'I want to sing, but I don't want to live in New York or California ... .' It just didn't seem attainable. But I remember whining, blah blah blah, to my grandmother about it, who was 93 at the time, and she said something to me that was very profound. She said, 'Bloom where you're planted. If God wants you to sing, He can handle wherever you are and whichever situation you're in - what you know, what you don't know - and nothing is too hard."
Considering her accomplishments over the past 25 years alone - with Freelon still residing in Durham, North Carolina - it's fair to say that her professional career didn't bloom so much as explode.
Since the release of her self-titled debut in 1992, Nnenna (pronounced NEE-na) Freelon has recorded 11 additional studio albums, amassed six Grammy nominations, and won the prestigious Billie Holiday Award from France's Académie du Jazz. She has sung at Carnegie Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and on TV's In Performance at the White House, and her legendary appearance at the 43rd Annual Grammy Awards netted Freelon a standing ovation. She has scored raves from Variety magazine ("her phrasing is original, surprising") and the Washington Post ("a bright, rhythmically infectious performance"), and has toured with the likes of Al Jarreau, George Benson, and even Ray Charles.
And when Quad City Arts' latest Visiting Artist performs locally between April 8 and 18, audiences will be treated not only to simultaneously soothing and thrilling jazz interpretations, but highlights from her current, nationally touring passion project The Clothesline Muse, a blend of music, drama, dance, and visual art in which Freelon stars, and for which she composed the score.
"As soon as I gave myself permission to do what I was really put on this planet to do," says Freelon during our recent phone interview, "everything became lighter. It didn't become easy, but the angst and the heaviness and the darkness of 'Should I? Shouldn't I?' went away, and I could apply myself with full permission. And then all of a sudden, strangely enough, the people that I needed to help me in that next stage of the journey appeared. And were probably there all along."
A Delay Is Not a Denial
A native of Cambridge, Massachusetts, Freelon says, "I got my start singing in the church, like many people. And my parents both have lovely voices, so singing was always a very natural, wonderful way of expression in our house. From my mother I got a love of gospel, and from my father a love of jazz."
Yet while she displayed musical interest and vocal talent at a young age, Freelon says that for her singing "was very much for the joy of doing it, not a driven 'Oh, I want to make it to stardom!' kind of thing."
At least not always. "I was actually offered a recording contract as a young person, and my parents were not having it. They really felt that that kind of life was a difficult life. And looking back on it now, the person offering the contract probably was kind of shady, but I didn't know that."
With a laugh, she adds, "So I owe thanks to some good parents who could see beyond short-term goals. One of my mother's favorite sayings was 'A delay is not a denial.' It's true."
Freelon's future career in the arts was consequently delayed while she received her degree in health-care administration from Boston's Simmons College, and moved to North Carolina to raise three children - Pierce, Maya, and Deen - with architect husband Philip. It's him, along with her grandmother, whom Freelon credits for helping her leave her "back-of-the-house job away from people" at a Durham hospital.
"My husband really encouraged me," says Freelon. "He said, 'You can't use your being married, your having children, where you are, whatever age you are - you can't use that as an excuse for your unfulfilled dreams. If you want to do this, I'll help you, but you have to decide what it is you want to do.'"
What Freelon wanted to do was sing professionally, "and initially, I had my eye on mentors who I didn't know. People like Dr. Billy Taylor, whose music I loved but who seemed so far away from me. But right in my own community in Durham, there were jazz masters - people who really knew the music and could teach me what I needed to know. One of them was Yusaf Salim, a wonderful piano player who took me under his wing and knew every song in every key, the entire American songbook. He had a wonderful worldview about music and felt, 'If you can speak, you can sing.'"
Before long, says Freelon with a laugh, "I was the queen of the local scene. I mean, I could tell you about Durham, Raleigh, Chapel Hill, Fuquay-Varina ... tiny places and strawberry festivals and all the cracks in between. I was everywhere. And I don't look on that time with anything but fondness, because that's how you cut your teeth, and learn to deal with different kinds of audiences.
"I still remember when I had a regular Thursday night at the Sheraton," she continues. "In the lobby. That's when I learned literally hundreds of tunes. People would come and say, 'Oh, do you know this tune? This one would be great for you!' And it got to be a thing where musicians would come and hang out - even people who were passing through to do shows would sit in. So I got to work with a lot of different people and it was really a great experience, learning how to test the temperature of the room and know what kind of repertoire works in which situation."
Her local career, however, became an international one thanks in large part to Freelon's 1990 introduction to the legendary jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. "I met him at a Southern Arts Federation jazz conference," she says, "and we became friends, and he continues to be a mentor and a great role model for me. Every time there was an opportunity to speak my name in a positive way or recommend me for something, he did. My record contract with Columbia Records was a direct result of his speaking on my behalf to George Butler, who was the producer of my first record."
Following the fast success of 1992's Nnenna Freelon, which climbed to number 11 on Billboard's jazz charts, Freelon began a busy recording and touring schedule that continues to this day, and that has found her sharing stages with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Anita Baker, Herbie Hancock, and - during one especially memorable tour - Ray Charles.
"I mean, you want to talk about an amazing artist," says Freelon. "He had an ability to read an audience without actually seeing them, and know just which tune to call. So I would just stand in the wings watching a master - a master - do his thing. It was an incredible education.
"I've had all these opportunities to travel the world," she continues, "and to travel with our kids. And I've been so lucky, because I've been able to impress on them that I got here on the wings of my art. We got here through love, and we got here because I'm doing what I love, and they've all carried that notion with them into their lives. Do what you love, and let the money chase you. You don't do it the other way around."
Two Hats, at Least
Currently, Freelon is spreading her artistic wings even further - and also stretching her acting, singing, and compositional muscles - with the touring production The Clothesline Muse.
"I always wanted to branch out and do some other things that involve the voice," she says, "but that also involved acting. I mean, I always dreamed that I would be on Broadway one day. And I've auditioned several times for Aida, I've auditioned for The Color Purple. But there are very few roles, and what roles there are, you know, 'You're too old,' 'You're too young,' 'You're too this or that ... .'"
She laughs. "You can't take it personally. But I finally realized, you know, 'If you want to do this in your lifetime, you may have to write something yourself.' And in speaking with my mentors and people who are well-versed in this world, they all gave me the same advice: 'Write about something you know about. Don't write something so outside of your own personal experience that it rings false.'"
Using the experiences of her mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother - as well as some of her own - as inspiration, what Freelon wrote was The Clothesline Muse. "It's a multi-disciplinary piece," she explains, "and a collaboration between three artists: myself; my daughter Maya Freelon-Asante, who's a wonderful visual artist and did the set design and the projections; and her mother-in-law Dr. Kariamu Welsh, who choreographed the dance in the piece. So it's dance, it's visual, and it's music. And I wrote the music and am in the piece, so that's two hats, at least, that I'm wearing.
"It's the story of a grandmother, Grandma Blu, who's an elderly washerwoman who is very tied to her clothesline and clothesline culture. She sees the clothesline as a place of memory and history, and wants to share her knowledge with her granddaughter Mary Mack, who's a little hard-headed and a very modern young woman. She's plugged into her online culture and social media, and wants nothing to do with the clothesline or grandma's stories.
"So through the evening," Freelon continues, "you get this inter-generational clash of values, and this tug-of-war as Mary begins to understand that there's more than meets the eye here, and more hanging on that line than just sheets. Every story in the piece comes out of grandma's clothes basket, and every article of clothing has a story, and they're all told through visual images and music and dance. We premiered it in Philadelphia in April of 2014 and began the 2015 tour in West Palm Beach in January, and it's been so much fun and has gotten great reactions."
While Quad Citians won't be able to see the complete Clothesline Muse production during Freelon's area stay, many of her local engagements will feature the performer "talking about my reflections on creating the piece and singing some of the music from the piece, and I'll have a few visuals with me."
Then, in April 18's residency-ending concert at the Bettendorf High School Performing Arts Center, Freelon's performance "is going to be myself with my trio, and we'll be doing songs from my last album Homefree. So there'll be a variety of different events while I'm circulating through the community. It's going to be a total smorgasbord."
And the menu, of course, will also find the Quad City Arts Visiting Artist performing for children in her numerous appearances at local schools, which delights this passionate, longtime advocate for arts education who served four years as the national spokesperson for the initiative Partners in Education.
"I grew up as an artist," she says, "and I grew up as a mother, and those things are kind of mooshed together for me. I feel I'm a better mother because I'm an artist, and I know I'm a better artist because I'm a mother. So I love being able to share my journey with students. I always tell them that there was a time when I only knew, like, 10 tunes. But you begin where you are, and you go from there.
"You have to totally look at the wonder of the blessings that come when you're open to doing what you're supposed to be doing, and how beautiful it is when you have a life you love. It's not always easy, but when you're not dreading going to work, and when the work you do feeds you, then it can't help but feed everybody else around you."
Nnenna Freelon's Quad City Arts Visiting Artist residency concludes with an April 18 concert at the Bettendorf High School Performing Arts Center (3333 18th Street) at 7 p.m.; admission is free, though donations are encouraged. Freelon will also perform free public events at Black Hawk College (Building 4, room 115, 6600 34th Avenue, Moline) on April 8 at 9 a.m.; the Moline Public Library (3210 41st Street) on April 11 at 3 p.m.; and the Deere-Wiman Carriage House (817 11th Avenue, Moline) on April 17 at 3 p.m.
For more information on Nnenna Freelon and her area residency, visit Nnenna.com and QuadCityArts.com.
