Pierce Freelon, having bounced and rocked his way through three frenetic songs, was already sweating through his organic clothes when it was time to bring a special guest to the stage.
“You know it wouldn’t be right if we came back to Durham without including the lovely vocals of six-time Grammy nominee, Mrs. Nnenna Freelon – aka Mommy,” Pierce says, drawing a cheer from the packed Duke Coffeehouse crowd, there for the official release of the debut full-length album, Silence Fiction from Pierce’s band, The Beast.
“How you feelin’, mom?”
A beam and a nod.
“She’s feelin’ good,” Pierce confirms. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is, like, three hours past her bedtime, so give her another round of applause.”
The crowd obliges and the band launches into "Once Again,” a perfect showcase for the simultaneously cohesive and juxtaposed sound that occurs when the gifted traditional jazz vocalist performs with the hip-hop/jazz/soul-fusion act that is The Beast.
“I was green back when I was 16, now I’m emceeing, living my dream,” Pierce raps. “Listen to the queen.”
Nnenna (pronounced NEE-nah) jumps in with an intricate run of scatting, showing off both her professionally honed chords and her improvisational skills. Pierce watches his mother, bobbing his head and smiling, before he joins her in the chorus. The song ends, and Nnenna flashes one last bright beam and waves at her son as she walks off stage and disappears into the throng.
Her work is done. This is the night of The Beast.
“Jazz sort of became the first language
I speak, through hip-hop the ancestors manifested through me.” – The Beast, Come Closer
At its core, this is a story about music, both as a tie that binds and as an outlet for individual expression. Music has been a constant in the lives of both Nnenna and her son, yet they’ve pursued their passion in decidedly different ways.
But this is also about family – specifically, about one of Durham’s most creative, close and flat-out cool clans.
The TV went off on Sunday evenings in the Freelon household and didn’t come back on until Friday evening. The week was devoted to work, to family time and, of course, to music.
“It allowed our children to focus not only on their studies, but also other art forms,” says Philip Freelon, a renowned architect whose company, The Freelon Group, is part of a team that will design the new National Museum of African American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution.
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