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After your association with Capitol Records ended, we didn’t hear much from you (recording-wise) throughout the 1980s, save for the club hit “In Motion” and your appearance on Belinda Carlisle’s remake of “Band of Gold.” Did you make a decision to back away from recording?
Really, it was a like a dead period. I just couldn’t get a deal. I would’ve been with another label if someone had signed me. That said, I still worked . What kept me afloat was musical theatre. I was signed to do Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Ladies for eight months in Las Vegas at the Desert Inn. I played Phyllis Hyman’s role. I’ve since done eight companies of the show both in America and Europe. I also did a tour of Ain’t Misbehavin’ with Della Reese. Then, a musical called The Blues in the Night—I did seven companies of that, here and in Japan. Later on, I did some acting. I had a cameo role in The Nutty Professor with Eddie Murphy, and was involved in a few other movie projects.
Since the dawning of the 2000s, you’ve released a few albums, most notably Come See about Me on Volt Records in 2001 and the independent On the Inside shortly after that. However, your newest recording endeavor, Come Back to Me Love, is particularly significant in that it brings you full circle to the jazz style that you were performing in during the ’50s and ’60s. How did this project come about?
After Ella Fitzgerald passed in 1996, I decided that I wanted to do a full-out tribute to her. In 2004, I got a call from Maurice Hines, who told me that a theatre in New Brunswick wanted to do the play, Ella: First Lady of Song. He wanted me to do it, and I did. We got rave reviews, and then I started doing a one-woman concert tribute to Ella for several years. Last year, he called me and told me about a theatre in Alexandria, Virginia, called Metro Stage. There was also a reading at Kennedy Center in which I reprised the role. I got a rave review in The Washington Post.
How did you come to connect with Artistry Music for Come Back to Me Love?
This started in Detroit. I was back there doing an engagement, a one-night performance at a hotel called the Saint Regis, with a big band and Johnny Trudell. I was doing my Ella show. The bass player, Ralph Armstrong, he’s wonderful. He recommended that I play a club in Grosse Point. He said, “It’s small, really intimate, but they draw a really nice high-class crowd. The food is great and the lady who owns it has her own jazz label and owns the Detroit Jazz Festival.” I checked it out, and he hooked me up with the manager. They booked me. It’s called The Dirty Dog Jazz Cafe’. I figured it’d be nice to work back in my hometown and have my friends and relatives come to see me. I did four nights. They asked me to come back six months later. Then, they asked me to do a song for a documentary about Gretchen Valade, the owner. When I finished my engagement, Gretchen asked me to do a CD. So, it was a gig that something wonderful came out of.
When I think back on it, I was living in New York for almost eight years, and I had to go back to Detroit before I really found success. The same thing is happening now. I’m going back to the soul of everything—my roots.
On this album, you’re doing a combination of jazz standards and originals that have a touch of classic pop. What role did you play in the process of selecting the tunes?
I was given free reign to oversee the repertoire. Gretchen and her business partner,Tom Robinson, sent me 22 songs and asked me to choose six of them. My arranger, Bill Cunliffe, and I narrowed it down. Then, we picked out eight standards that I liked. Most of them I’ve never performed before, except for “Spring Can Really Hang You up the Most.”
How did you pick “You’d Be So Nice to Come Home To,” which has been done by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Nina Simone?
It’s a standard that’s been around forever by Cole Porter. It’s a good jamming song, the American songbook type that I like a lot.
How about “Save Your Love for Me”?
That goes back to the ’60s when I first came to New York. I remember having that album with Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley. I’ve always been fond of that song.
You mentioned “Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most.” What stands out to you about that one?
It’s one of those songs that always has touched me. I love the chord changes. I do that song in my tribute show to Ella, as well.
I read in the press release for the new album that “The Island” is a song you especially enjoyed doing?
Yes! A lot of it has to do with Bill’s string arrangement—it’s to die for! It took me to a whole ‘nother place. It’s intimate, sexual, and spiritual all at the same time.
You recorded this album at Capitol Records Studio A with some 40 musicians. What was that experience like?
It was lovely. It’s something that I’ll always remember. I haven’t had a situation like this in quite some time. My body and my consciousness had missed it. Like in the musical Sunset Boulevard, when she walks into the studio and sings, “I don’t know why I’m frightened, I know my way around here.” That was true for me. I knew my way around Capitol, I’d been there several times. But this time I was coming back to a whole new beginning. It felt so good.
In your current live shows, are you strictly focusing on material from Come Back to Me Love?
I do material from this album, as well as hits from other periods of my career. A little bit of everything!
Any upcoming appearances or events that you’d like our readers to know about?
I’ll be playing BB King’s in New York on August 9, and also the Detroit Jazz Festival on August 30. I’m also doing some overseas dates. Fans can check out my website, FredaPayne.com, for further gigs.
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