Patti Austin Tributes Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington with Cleveland Orchestra Tonight

The Cleveland Orchestra concludes its acclaimed 2012-13 Celebrity Series tonight, May 18, when Patti Austin performs with the Orchestra in a concert that pays homage to the revered jazz classics of Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. The program includes Fats Waller's "Honeysuckle Rose," Sam Coslow's "You'll Have to Swing It (Mr. Paganini)," and selections by Duke Ellington.

Throughout her 40-year career as performer, songwriter, and vocalist, Patti Austin has been critically acclaimed for her pop, R&B, jazz, soul, and swing renditions. She has been praised for her "voice of elegance, grace and style." Her 2002 tribute CD, For Ella, was nominated for a Grammy Award and has led to guest engagements with jazz bands and symphony orchestras throughout the United States and Europe.

Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950, in Harlem, New York) is an American Grammy Award-winning R&B and jazz music singer. She made her debut at the Apollo Theater at age four and had a contract with RCA Records when she was only five. Quincy Jones and Dinah Washington have proclaimed themselves as her godparents.

By the late 1960s, Austin was a prolific session musician and commercial jingle singer. During the 1980s, signed to Jones's Qwest Records, she began her most prolific hit-making period. She charted twenty R&B songs between 1969 and 1991 and had success on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, where she hit number one in 1981 with "Do You Love Me?"/"The Genie."

The album containing that hit, Every Home Should Have One, also produced her biggest mainstream hit: "Baby, Come To Me," a duet with James Ingram, initially peaked at number 73 on the Hot 100 in early 1982. After being featured as the love theme in a prominent storyline on the soap opera General Hospital, the song re-entered the pop chart in October and went to number one in February 1983. The single was certified Gold by the RIAA. She would later team up again with Ingram for "How Do You Keep The Music Playing?"

Patti Austin has released nineteen albums during her career, and her record Avant Gershwin won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2008. Her other albums include For Ella, a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald released in 2002.

This concert takes place at Severance Hall, 11001 Euclid Ave., Cleveland. Ticket prices range from $35 to $80. Call the Severance Hall Ticket Office at 216-231-1111 or 800-686-1141, or visit online at clevelandorchestra.com. For information about parking for Severance Hall concerts, click here.

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