Freda Payne Stars In Tribute To Ella Fitzgerald At Bucks County Playhouse

Singer Freda Payne, the celebrated singer of the disco-era top-charter "Band of Gold," will bring her acclaimed "Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald" to Bucks County Playhouse for ten concerts, August 26 through September 5. Tickets are now on sale at buckscountyplayhouse.org.

Payne, an accomplished R&B and jazz vocalist, pays tribute to the legendary Ella Fitzgerald's 60-plus year career from her 1934 award-winning Apollo Theater debut and through her celebrated career as a vocalist. The star of such Broadway shows as "Jelly's Last Jam", "Sophisticated Ladies" and "Blues in the Night," Payne "recreates the spirit of Ella" with her renditions of "A Tisket, A-Tasket," "Sweet Georgia Brown," "It Don't Mean A Thing" and "Mack the Knife," as well as many other Fitzgerald classics.

In reviewing an early version of her tribute, "The New York Times" hailed Payne's singing noting, "Even today not many jazz singers can deliver scat improvisations with the velocity and timbral control that Fitzgerald wielded while tossing off passages that suggested another language passing through her, the jazz equivalent of speaking in tongues. Ms. Payne can not only do it, but the voice she adopts for the task is strongly reminiscent of Fitzgerald's."

This spring, Payne released her most star-studded Jazz vocal project yet, a five-song EP "Let There Be Love." The record bubbles over with knockout performances highlighted by four duets with special guests - Johnny Mathis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling and Kenny Lattimore. Being played on jazz stations throughout the country, there are big band charts for 30-pieces by Grammy-winner Gordon Goodwin.

Payne's appearance at Bucks County Playhouse caps a summer that was centered on women. The Playhouse reopened its doors this Spring with the world premiere of Candace Bushnell's "Is There Still Sex in the City?" and followed the production with a special engagement of an expanded version of Marilu Henner's club act, "The Marilu Henner Show." In between, the Playhouse Youth Company, an ensemble of 11 teenage women from the region, entertained audiences with their original work, "Dream Awake."

Freda Payne is best known for her career in music during the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Her most notable record is her 1970 hit single, "Band of Gold.". Payne was also an actress in musicals and film, as well as the host of a TV talk show. Payne is the older sister of Scherrie Payne, a former singer with the American vocal group The Supremes.

In 1956, while at Hutchins Middle School in Detroit, Michigan, Payne appeared on the nationally televised Ted Mack's The Original Amateur Hour; singing jingles, she was featured on WJR radio's Make Way for Youth, in addition to many other local television and radio shows. When she graduated from high school, Payne began touring with Pearl Bailey's musical review and sang with the Duke Ellington Band. Payne's first album was After the Lights Go Down for ABC's Impulse Records in 1962.

Moving to New York City in 1963, Payne made appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show and The Dick Cavett Show. In 1964, Payne joined The Four Tops, Billy Eckstine, and Nipsey Russell on the Quincy Jones Tour. Payne was understudy for Leslie Uggams in Broadway's "Hallelujah Baby!" in 1967; she also performed in the Equity Theatre production of "Lost in the Stars." Stardom for Payne began when she signed with Invictus Records, a label run by her old Detroit friends Brian Holland, Edward Holland, Jr., and Lamont Dozier (formerly of Motown) in 1969. Payne's smash single "Band of Gold," released in 1970, was ranked #1 in the United Kingdom and #3 in the United States; it was her first gold record. Payne's other hits included "Deeper and Deeper," "You Brought Me Joy," and the anti-war, "Bring the Boys Home."

As her star kept rising, Payne began appearing in television specials and touring the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan. Although she left Invictus in 1973, date Payne continued recording, pressing twenty-one albums, including several remakes of "Band of Gold." In 1974, Payne made the cover of Jet magazine after she was dubbed a Dame of Malta, by the Knights of Malta and the Sovereign Military, and Hospital Order of St. John of Jerusalem by the Prince of Rumania. Payne hosted Today's Black Woman, a talk show, in 1980 and 1981, before joining the cast of Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Ladies" in 1982. Payne also starred in productions of "Ain't Misbehavin'" with Della Reese, "The Blues in the Night," "Jellies Last Jam" with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover in the 1990s. Payne's film appearances include: "Private Obsession" in 1995; "Sprung" in 1997; "Ragdoll" in 1999; "The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" in 2000; and "Fire and Ice" in 2001.

Tickets to Freda Payne in "A Tribute to Ella Fitzgerald" are on sale at buckscountyplayhouse.org or by calling the Box Office at 215.862.2121.

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