Jazz Singer Nnenna Freelon Works Through Grief With New Album And Podcast

Nnenna and Phil Freelon were a power couple: He was the lead architect for the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History & Culture, and she was a Grammy-nominated jazz singer, composer, actress and playwright. They enjoyed an exciting, full life of work, travel, friends and family.

Phil Freelon died in 2019. Now, Nneenna has started new podcast to share her grief, and recorded a new album dedicated to her late husband. She describes Time Traveler as a love letter to Phil, who she met in 1978 on a mutual friend's porch in North Carolina.

"He was my heart," she says from her home in Durham. "He was my soul mate."