Guest Stars
Jan 5, 2012 - Mar 10, 2012
Mar 13, 2012 - May 20, 2012
Variety Acts
Nov 1, 2011 - May 20, 2012
Note:
Guest stars and variety acts subject to change.
Freda Payne
A "Band of Gold" is wrapped around the jazz-inspired melodious strains of Freda Payne's unique voice.
That was the name of the two-million-selling single, first recorded in 1970, that propelled Payne into vocal prominence, and the golden tones are still the signature of this Detroit-bred songbird. She brings that "Band of Gold" and her vast repertoire of songs to the Plaza Theatre as the opening guest star of the Fabulous Palm Springs Follies' 18th season.
Born in 1942, she grew up listening to the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald and the immortal Billie Holiday and, while influenced by them, developed her own unique style, nurtured as a teenager by attending the Institute of Musical Arts in Detroit. Appearances on local television and radio, augmented by radio commercial jingles, caught the attention of Berry Gordy, head of Motown, who offered her a recording contract, and Duke Ellington, who invited her to sing with his famous orchestra on a two-night stand in Pittsburgh and a consequent offer to take her on as a regular vocalist. But Mama put her foot down and insisted that the ingenue singer finish school first.
At 21, Payne went out on her own in New York, working with such entertainers as the legendary Quincy Jones and comedian Bill Cosby, and also compiled her debut jazz album, After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!!! She soon veered her attention to Broadway and was the understudy to Leslie Uggams for the long-running Hallelujah Baby.
Back in Detroit, a newly-formed record label, Invictus, signed her and soon produced her first mega-hit, the afore-mentioned Band of Gold and a Vietnam protest song, Bring the Boys Home, that was her second gold seller. She also joined Jayne Kennedy and Eartha Kitt in being voted the world's Most Beautiful Black Women.
That made the 'oh-so-glamorous' Ms. Payne a natural for venturing into television, where she hosted her own talk show, and the movies (including an Eddie Murphy Nutty Professor opus) over the succeeding decades, in addition to various theatrical productions.
Music, however, remained the key element in her professional work, and last winter she scored rave reviews for her New York nightclub appearance at "Feinstein's at Loews Regency," in which her tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, had the New York Times proclaiming, "That Ms. Payne can even begin to duplicate Fitzgerald's scat-singing interludes attests to her formidable technique and swing roots."
All of which talents are in prime evidence here on the Plaza Theatre's stage.
