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Nnenna Freelon’s approach to music is unique and varied.

“I like a lot of different kinds of music,” she says. “I don’t see barriers between any type of song.”

You need only listen to a few songs to hear what she means. “Lift Every Voice” off her most recent album, “Homefree,” opens with a groovy electric-piano riff and then launches into smooth-jazz vocals that hint of Gospel tradition. Halfway through the track, she incorporates rap and layers it with scat.

“I Feel Pretty” – the Bernstein classic from “West Side Story” – has none of the girlish innocence associated with the original. Freelon’s rendition is the song of a mature woman. The lyrics are the same, but the style and the voice tell you this is an adult’s view of feeling pretty, not a teenager’s. It has a 21st-century sensibility, not that of the 1950’s.

“A lot of jazz artists have been going back to the classics like Count Basie and Duke Ellington and re-discovering what made them great,” she says, “but that doesn’t hold any interest for me. I sing to the times I’m in.”

She has a similar approach to “Lena, A Lovesome Thing,” the show she brings to the Lied Center Friday night. It’s a tribute to jazz legend Lena Horne, who was a huge inspiration to Freelon.

“The show is a nod to her, because, without her, there wouldn’t be me,” she says. “Unlike some artists today, she had a very long career. I’d love to have a career that spans into my 60’s or 70’s like she did.”

But, like with the rest of her music, Freelon isn’t interested in just paying tribute. She wants to explore Horne’s relevance, both to the present and personally to Freelon.

“She was dedicated to living the life of an artist,” Freelon notes. “She stood up for what she believed in. So I want to explore, ‘What does she have to say to us in modern times?'”

To do that, Freelon will perform well known Horne pieces such as “Stormy Weather,” but she also plans to do some songs that were recorded by Horne but aren’t as often associated with her.

“Everybody knows ‘Stormy Weather’,” Freelon says, “but she also did ‘Ain’t Easy Being Gone’ and ‘Moon River’. I’m performing songs by Lena that weave a story through my life and comment on it.”

Just like her updating of classic songs and threading multiple forms of music in her work, Freelon is hoping to bring some fresh perspective to Horne, whom she feels was ahead of her time.

It’s part of her overall view of the importance of arts in our lives. She’ll be talking about that Wednesday night at 5:30pm at the Lied in a special talk – “Educating the Whole Child: It Takes a Community.”

“If we leave the arts out (of education),” she says, “we are missing a big, big portion of what it means to be human. We need to realize how important it is not to lose sight of what it means to be fully and culturally educated.”

Just like with her music, she sings to the times she’s in.

Nnenna Freelon appears live at the Lied Center Friday, October 12 at 7:30pm. Tickets are available by calling the box office at 785-864-2787 or online at lied.ku.edu.