On Saturday, October 14, at 7:30 p.m., Freda Payne came to Stockton University’s Performing Arts Center to pay tribute to the late Ella Fitzgerald.

During the show, Payne gave mini monologues about Fitzgerald’s life and how she rose to stardom in between her performances of some of Fitzgerald’s most famous works. Each song matched with the mini monologue that preceded it. Some of the songs Payne sang included “A-Tisket, A-Tasket,” “Night and Day,” “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “St. Louis Blues,” “Ella in Rome,” “Taking a Chance on Love,” “Spring Can Really Hang You Up,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Someone to Watch over Me,” “That Lady is a Tramp,” and many other fan-favorites. 

Payne talked about her recent EP, titled “Let There Be Love,” and spoke about the artists she worked with to cover Fitzgerald’s songs. Before she concluded the show, she sang her famous original work, titled “Band of Gold,” and received a standing ovation. In the end, she got to meet some of the attendees, who bought copies of her published memoir and the CDs of her most famous covers.

Payne was born on September 19, 1942, in Detroit, Michigan. She modeled and took ballet and Afro-Cuban dance, and when she graduated from Central High School she toured with the Pearl Bailey Musical Review and sang with the Duke Ellington Band. Her first album, titled “After the Lights Go Down,” was released by ABC’s Impulse Records in 1962. Later, she moved to New York City, where she made appearances on the Tonight Show with Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, and the Dick Cavett Show. Payne then signed with Invictus Records, run by her old Detroit friends Brian Holland, Edward Holland Jr., and Lamont Dozier. There, she had her 1970 smash hit “Band of Gold,” which ranked #1 in the U.K. and #3 in the U.S.A, thus being her first gold record. She had other hits including “Deeper and Deeper,” “You Brought Me Joy,” and her anti-war song “Bring the Boys Home.”

Ella Fitzgerald was an African-American jazz singer born on April 25, 1917. She was also referred to as the “First Lady of Song,” the “Queen of Jazz,” and “Lady Ella.” In her lifetime, she won 13 Grammy awards and sold over 40 million albums. Her voice was known as being flexible, wide-ranging, and ageless. She could sing anything but loved to sing ballads and sweet jazz. One thing she was well-known for was imitating instruments in an orchestra, an act commonly referred to as “scatting.” She performed at top venues all over the world and worked with jazz icons like Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, and Duke Ellington. One of the main things that people loved about Fitzgerald was how she could bring people from all different backgrounds together to enjoy her music.