Morris Day and The Time with Guest Regina Belle Play NJ's bergenPAC, 9/15

Morris Day and The Time with special guest and Teaneck's own, Regina Belle, a favorite contemporary will be at The Bergen Performance Arts Center at 30 North Van Brunt Street in Englewood, New Jersey. For tickets visit Ticketmaster.com or reserve them at the box office 201 227 1030.

MORRIS DAY first taste of success came as a founding member of Prince's band The Time in 1981 with the release of the group's self-titled debut album. "The Time" contained the hits "Get it Up," "Cool" and "Girl." The albums "What Time Is It?" and "Ice Cream Castle" followed before Day began a solo career in 1984. He released the albums "The Color of Success," "Daydreaming" and Guaranteed" and between his solo and group work, Morris sold more than 10 million albums.

MORRIS DAY & THE TIME come to bergenPAC ready to bring the funk. This high-energy group is known for over-the-top performances of soul and funk music and will be performing all of the hit songs, such as ""Get it Up," "Cool," "Girl," "777-9311," "Wild and Loose," "Walk," "Gigolos Get Lonely Too" and "Jungle Love." Fans will get a chance to experience sounds from the past and present at the show Saturday night.

Four-time GRAMMY-winning R&B/Pop songstress Regina Belle is a different story. Even as the New Jersey native rode high in the urban charts throughout the '80s and '90s with such urban classics as "Baby Come to Me," "Make It Like It Was" and "What Goes Around," faith, churchgoing, and gospel music remained at the very core of her life in the spotlight. Today, Belle is a pastor's wife and minister of music at New Shield of Faith Ministries in Atlanta, where her husband, John S. Battle III, is senior pastor.

Regina Belle was born in Englewood, New Jersey. It was at Englewood's Mount Calvary Baptist Church, and then Paterson's Friendship Baptist Church (presided over by Belle's uncle, the Reverend Fred Belle), that Regina Belle began attracting attention with hervocal abilities. She sang her first solo in church at age 8; and by age 17, she was the church's star singer. Belle attended Dwight Morrow High School where she studied trombone,tuba and steel drums. After graduation, she studied opera at the Manhattan School of Music. At Rutgers University, she became the first female vocalist with the school's jazz ensemble. Belle's musical influences include Phyllis Hyman, Billie Holiday, Donny Hathaway, and Nancy Wilson.

She was introduced to the Manhattans by New York radio DJ Vaughn Harper and began working as their opening act. She recorded the duet "Where Did We Go Wrong" with the group which helped to attract the attention of Columbia Records. They eventually signed her to a record deal.

"I still went to church," says Belle, whose LOVE FOREVER SHINES, her lifetime-in-the-making gospel debut, is set to make a splash via Ruben Rodriguez' Pendulum Records with Walker Davis Entertainment anddistributed by Fontana. "I carried it with me. I wasn't necessarily in a church because I traveled from city to city. But God is not something that you can box in a building. You have to take him with you. Even though I didn't have the understanding that I have now, He was still covering me even at that stage of the game."

bergenPAC is located at 30 North Van Brunt Street, Englewood, NJ. Call (201) 227-1030 or visit www.bergenpac.org or www.ticketmaster.com for tickets and more information.

Known as The John Harms Center for 27 years, this cultural hub in Englewood, has been reborn as Bergen Performing Arts Center or bergenPAC. This 1367- seat theater, currently in its eighth season, is a landmark and remains one of the finest acoustic halls in the United States. The legendary Tony Bennett and Canadian crooner k.d. lang recorded their 2003 Grammy award-winning CD live on bergenPAC's own stage through a broadband fiber-optic connection with Bennett Studios. bergenPAC is the home of a media production system that is unparalleled, upholding its reputation as a venue for outstanding music, dance and theater. As a non-profit corporation, bergenPAC has thrived thanks to the aid and generosity of sponsors, donors and patrons.

To post a comment, you must register and login.