Freda Payne News

The eagerly-anticipated David Gest tour is going ahead as planned, including a show in Warrington, despite the sad death of the music and reality TV star earlier this month.

I hear music, mighty fine music . . . Host Michael Feinstein sings with pristine bass accompaniment, as Musical Director Tedd Firth's Big Band filters in musician by musician. The sweetest sounds I ever heard . . . he continues as a light saxophone joins syncopated rhythm. Then whomp! All 17 players swing. Rarely have I heard sound design so perfectly balanced, appropriately favoring vocals. Feinstein remains smooth and easy riding the wave. 'You may wonder about the role of jazz in popular song . . . ' our host begins at the start of Jazz at Lincoln Center's first of three segments of the Jazz & Popular Song Series in the Appel Room. At a time when popular songs came and went with alacrity, jazz artists meeting for improvisational jam sessions needed pieces they all knew. Thus jazz mined popular music creating an intersection of the two art forms. Aided and abetted by four very different featured guests, Feinstein illuminates by example, not narrative.

Michael Feinstein, director of Jazz at Lincoln Center's Jazz & Popular Song series brought The Great Jazz Standards to The Appel Room last night and BroadwayWorld was there.

Once again, beginning Wednesday evening at 7 pm in Jazz at Lincoln Center's spectacular Appel Room, Michael Feinstein shares his taste, knowledge, and infectious enthusiasm with concerts of diverse music and vocals. This year's concert schedule with The Tedd Firth Big Band and special guests includes The Great Jazz Standards, A Right To Sing the Blues, and Sing Me a Swing Song. In a recent interview with BroadwayWorld.com, Feinstein says he thinks the shows are popular not only because they reflect imagination and variety, but also because “they're so clearly spontaneous at a time when music is often pre-canned.” Each evening different vocalists join our host presenting his or her singular style.

In her show entitled, FROM THE BRILL BUILDING TO THE METROPOLITAN ROOM: SANDRA PILLER SINGS RUTH ROBERTS, the audience will hear songs recorded by such artists as Petula Clark, Dean Martin, Buddy Holly, Jimmy Dean, Lawrence Welk, Freda Payne, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.

In her show entitled, FROM THE BRILL BUILDING TO THE METROPOLITAN ROOM: SANDRA PILLER SINGS RUTH ROBERTS, the audience will hear songs recorded by such artists as Petula Clark, Dean Martin, Buddy Holly, Jimmy Dean, Lawrence Welk, Freda Payne, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.

For two weeks in December, the Lovelace Studio Theatre at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts will be transformed into the intimate nightclub world of Cabaret. This brand-new series will bring some of today's most heralded cabaret acts today to The Wallis for the first time including Amanda McBroom, Christine Andreas, Alice Ripley, Freda Payne, Melissa Manchester, Ute Lemper and Jeff Goldblum.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis -- Tania Camargo, Managing Director; Patricia Wolff, Interim Artistic Director; James D'Asaro, Interim Producing Director) announce Artistic Advisors and programming for the 2015-2016 Season, opening October 1-3 with Twyla Tharp: a 50th Anniversary Celebration, a program of new work by Ms. Tharp, co-commissioned by The Wallis (in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Joyce Theatre, Ravina Festival Association & Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University and Texas International Theatrical Arts Society).

The Pasadena Playhouse production of REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES by Josefina López and directed by Seema Sueko opened in conjunction with the Wells Fargo Theatrical Diversity Project fundraising event. Legendary director, choreographer and producer Kenny Ortega will be the 2015 Diversity Award Artistic Honoree and Abel Ramirez, founder of El Portal Restaurant, will be the 2015 Community Honoree. Check out the opening night pics below!

In her show entitled 'From the Brill Building to the Metropolitan Room: Sandra Piller Sings Ruth Roberts,' the audience will hear songs recorded by such artists as Petula Clark, Dean Martin, Buddy Holly, Jimmy Dean, Lawrence Welk, Freda Payne, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, and many more.

FREDA PAYNE is a Detroit native who never realized her talents until the early age of twelve. Her piano teacher discovered her singing ability and from that point on Freda was singing for local affairs around Detroit and even entered talent contest on local TV as well as the national TV show, Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour.

Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts (The Wallis -- Tania Camargo, Managing Director; Patricia Wolff, Interim Artistic Director; James D'Asaro, Interim Producing Director) announce Artistic Advisors and programming for the 2015-2016 Season, opening October 1-3 with Twyla Tharp: a 50th Anniversary Celebration, a program of new work by Ms. Tharp, co-commissioned by The Wallis (in partnership with the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, The Joyce Theatre, Ravina Festival Association & Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University and Texas International Theatrical Arts Society).

Freda Payne is a Detroit native who never realized her talents until the early age of twelve. Her piano teacher discovered her singing ability and from that point on Freda was singing for local affairs around Detroit and even entered talent contest on local TV as well as the national TV show, Ted Mack Original Amateur Hour. At age fourteen she joined The Don Large's Make Way for Youth radio show broadcasted on station WJR in the penthouse of the Fisher Bldg. Freda's first album deal was on the Impulse label with ABC Paramount in New York. After The Lights Go Down Low and much more. Recording her next album three years later on MGM records. Was an early protege of Quincy Jones during his big band era, also performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2008 in honor of Quincy's seventy fifth birthday celebration.

Acclaimed Jazz harpist-pianist-vocalist Corky Hale will present a 100th Birthday Show honoring Billie Holiday on Monday, April 6 at the Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Special guests will include singers Freda Payne, Eloise Laws and Tricia Tahara, with Hale on piano and harp, Lyman Medeiros on bass, John Chiodini on Guitar and Christopher Jones on drums. Holiday, who was born on April 7, 1915 and died in 1959, was one of the most important and influential jazz legends of all time.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce announced that songwriters and producers Holland-Dozier-Hollandwill be honored with the 2,543rd star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame tomorrow, Friday, February 13, at 11:30 a.m. The star in the category of Recording will be dedicated near the Live Nation Building at 7070 Hollywood Boulevard. Holland-Dozier-Holland have reunited for the first time in more than 30 years to write the score for the new Broadway-bound musical First Wives Club, which will make its World Premiere in Chicago on Tuesday, February 17, 2015 and play through March 29, 2015 at the Oriental Theatre (24 West Randolph St.).

A behind-the-scenes documentary video of The Actors Fund's Musical Monday event TRADITION: The Jewish Legacy of Broadway is now online. Check it out below!

The Actors Fund presents a very special MUSICAL MONDAY withMichael Childers Presents: ' TRADITION, THE JEWISH LEGACY OF BROADWAY' tonight, November 17, 2014. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m., followed by dessert reception with the performers.

The Actors Fund presents a very special MUSICAL MONDAY with Michael Childers Presents: ' TRADITION, THE JEWISH LEGACY OF BROADWAY' tonight, November 17, 2014. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m., followed by dessert reception with the performers.

The Actors Fund presents a very special MUSICAL MONDAY with Michael Childers Presents: ' TRADITION, THE JEWISH LEGACY OF BROADWAY' on November 17, 2014. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres at 7 p.m.; performance at 8 p.m., followed by dessert reception with the performers.

Well-loved entertainer Freda Payne kicked off the release of Come Back To Me Love with a performance at Catalina Jazz Club last weekend. Michael Feinstein, Quincy Jones and several stars from GREY'S ANATOMY appeared at the gig to help her celebrate both the album release and her birthday. Check out photos below!