Nnenna Freelon, Delvon Lamarr, Barrington Levy Featured in Star Tribune

It’s been a busy year for the veteran jazz vocalist. She released “Beneath the Skin,” a highly personal, pensive collection of originals, save for a gracefully balladic treatment of “Oh! Susanna.” Highlights include the grievingly bluesy “Widow Song,” the jaunty, trumpet-punctuated “Here’s Your Hat” and the proud ballad “Black Iris,” whose petals are in disarray but the “roses whisper: what a fine little sister.” If her first collection of original tunes isn’t enough, Freelon, who has lost both her husband and sister in the past few years, has authored “Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss,” a book about grief and healing (she has a podcast “Great Grief”) to be published next month by Duke University Press.