COLUMBIA — 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 Patti Austin (pictured) was a prolific session musician and commercial jingle singer. By the 1980s she was signed to Jones’ Qwest Records and she began having hits. She charted 20 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 album containing that hit, “Every Home Should Have One,” also produced her biggest mainstream hit. “Baby, Come To Me,” a duet with James Ingram, 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 early 1983.
In 1991, she recorded the duet “You Brought Me Love” with openly gay music legend Johnny Mathis, which was received with critical acclaim. That same year she was invited to be a guest on a Johnny Mathis television special that was broadcast across North America.
Coming up in November at the Koger Center, the jazz, R&B and dance music diva will undoubtedly take Columbia by storm.
Long a friend of the LGBT community, Austin was endeared to queer fans with a number of dance music classics that kept gays and lesbians hoping on dance floors throughout the ’80s.
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