Performance Guide
A Performance and Demonstration
Cuesheet
NNenna freelon Meet six-time GRAMMY®-nominated jazz vocalist and composer Nnenna Freelon (pronounced NEEnuh), who has been hailed as the “international voice of Jazz.” Jazz, especially vocal jazz, is a form of music through which an artist’s individual style clearly emerges and Nnenna Freelon’s work is a good example. Get to know her unique sound as she and her band perform a high energy concert program of well-known jazz standards and original works of music. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn the art of active listening, as well as pick up pointers on how to interpret jazz music.
Nnenna Freelon: What You Should Know n
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Born and raised in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Freelon discovered her passion for music at age seven when she sang her first solo at church. She was introduced to jazz music through her parents’ record collection, which included albums by groundbreaking jazz musicians and vocalists. Despite her early love for music, Freelon did not pursue a singing career until later in her life. First, she studied and worked in the health care industry, and embraced her role as a wife and the mother of three children. But ever since turning her focus back to music in the early 1990s, Freelon has recorded 11 albums which have earned her numerous awards and recognition. Freelon has collaborated and performed with such top jazz artists as Ray Charles and Aretha Franklin. She has also been seen and heard in feature films and television shows including What Women Want and “Mad Men.”
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