Jennah Bell’s love of music started with Disney movies and musicals. By age six she had matured past the soundtrack to “Annie” and discovered the magic of Stevie Wonder and the Beatles and began to understand the wide range of stories that music can tell.
She asked for her first guitar by age 13, but playing music was still just something to do. It was not yet a calling. Bell was born into a family with rich musical roots that traversed jazz, funk, pop and soul: her father is Ronald Bell, and her uncle is Robert Bell of Kool & The Gang. Bell refuses to let her music be defined by any one genre. Her work begins with telling a story, and she says that is the telling of that story that decides the genre. Bell released her first full-length album in February and joins host Frank Stasio for conversation and live performance from “Anchors and Elephants.” Jennah Bell is performing at Summerstage Music Series in Durham on Friday, June 21 at the Golden Belt Campus.