PATTI AUSTIN SHINES THROUGH THE TEST OF TIME
America’s beloved R&B, pop and Grammy-winning jazz favorite Patti Austin heated up tonight’s snowy winter ‘Chi Town’ chill with a warm and heartfelt set-list of nostalgic gems from her eclectic music career that spans more than four decades.
In the first of two performances at City Winery Chicago, she included the timeless Quincy Jones-produced anthems “Razzamatazz” – “Betcha Wouldn’t Hurt Me” (from his 12x Grammy-nominated ‘The Dude’ LP), her poignant solo love ballad, “Through The Test Of Time” and the American songbook’s Fred Astaire standard, “They Can’t Take That Away From Me”.
At age 4, young Patti began singing professionally on New York’s famous Apollo stage under the backstage guidance of her beloved Godmother – the late great 1950-’60s blues /jazz ‘Queen’ Dinah Washington.
Still going strong today (at age 75 ‘years young’), Miss Austin has never looked better or sounded as pitch perfect.
Tonight’s unforgettable show was filled with many hilarious stories and antidotes about her incredible life journey.
Other stellar music highlights included a fun version of “Baby Come To Me” and a deeply moving rendition of “How Do You Keep The Music Playing”. Both songs introduced Patti Austin to 1980s pop radio, daytime soap opera viewers (and even Academy Award night TV audiences) with the amazing duet partner James Ingram, RIP.
Patti shared many golden career memories (both professional and extremely personal) plus several politically-tinged messages of encouragement and hope with her intimate audience of loyal fans.
The cheering standing ovation Chicago crowd was treated to a Burt Bacharach-Hal David final encore song with an international theme as relevant today more than ever: “What The World Needs Now Is Love”.
Darrell Hill
Black Entertainment Historian And Memorabilia Archivist
Sankofahouse100@gmail.com
