(Vocal Jazz,Soul) Freda Payne - Come Back to Me Love - 2014, MP3, 320

The multi-talented Freda Payne is best known for her singing career, yet she has also performed in musicals and acted in movies over the years, and briefly was the host of her own TV talk show. BornFreda Charcilia Payne on September 19, 1942, in Detroit, MI, Payne developed an appreciation of music at an early age (due to such sultry jazz singers as Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, and Billie Holiday). Payne's own musical career blossomed soon after, as she began early singing radio commercial jingles, which brought the young vocalist to the attention of several music-biz heavyweights.Berry Gordy, Jr. attempted to sign Payne to his then-burgeoning record company, Motown, while Duke Ellington employed Payne as the featured singer with his renowned orchestra for two nights in Pittsburgh, resulting in Ellington offering the teenager a ten-year contract. But in both cases, Payne's mother turned them down.
During the early to mid-'60s, Payne established herself as a fine jazz vocalist, touring the country with both Quincy Jonesand Bill Cosby, and issuing a jazz/big band-based album in 1963, After the Lights Go Down Low and Much More!. In addition to a sophomore effort surfacing three years later, How Do You Say I Don't Love You Anymore, Payne enjoyed further exposure via appearances on such TV shows as Johnny Carson, David Frost, and Merv Griffin. But it wasn't until Payne signed on to the Invictus label in 1969 (headed by longtime friends/former Motown songwriters/producers Eddie Holland, Lamont Dozier, and Brian Holland) and issued the fine album Band of Gold that she scored her breakthrough hit single, the album's title track, which peaked at number three in the U.S. and topped the chart in the U.K. in 1970.
Although Payne never enjoyed another hit as substantial as "Band of Gold," several other successful singles followed in the early '70s: "Deeper and Deeper," "Cherish What's Dear to You," "You Brought the Joy," and the Vietnam protest song "Bring the Boys Home." Further albums followed throughout the '70s, including such titles as Contact, Reaching Out,Payne & Pleasure, Out of Payne Comes Love, Stares & Whispers, Supernatural High, and Hot, which all failed to make an impression on the charts. Payne then switched her attention from music to TV, as she hosted her very own (yet short-lived) talk show in 1981, Today's Black Woman. The '90s saw Payne return back to music, as such albums as An Evening With Freda Payne and Christmas With Freda and Friends were issued, while Payne also landed roles in such movies as Private Obsession, Sprung, and Ragdoll. Payne continued to balance an acting and music career during the early 21st century, as she appeared in the 2000 Eddie Murphy comedy Nutty Professor II: The Klumps and the made-for-TV movie Fire & Ice, plus issuing an all-new album in 2001, Come See About Me. Around the same time, several hits compilations were issued, including such titles as Band of Gold: The Best of Freda Payne, Unhooked Generation: The Complete Invictus Recordings, and The Best of Freda Payne: Ten Best Series. Impulse re-released After the Lights Go Down Low in 2005, but failed to add any bonus material.

In 1970, the spirited R&B/pop singer Freda Payne had a monster success with "Band of Gold," a bouncy love-gone-wrong song that was probably the first top-40 hit ever written about impotence. Decades later, with undiminished pipes, beauty, and impressive energy, Payne returns to the spotlight with this big-band outing from Mack Records on its Artistry Musicimprint.
Arranged and conducted by the brilliant pianist Bill Cunliffe, Come Back to Me Love features a full complement of brass and horns together with a cushion of violins, violas, cellos, and a guitar, vibraphone, and harp. It's an elaborate yet tasteful backdrop for the 14 songs in the session. These include six written by Gretchen C. Valade, the founder of Mack Records, whose lyrics are clever and ring true, but whose melodies don't rise to the classic level of "You'd Be So Nice to Come Home To," "The Island" and "Midnight Sun" (Note: the "Lately" on this track list is not by Stevie Wonder.) Payne's versatile voice, with its echoes of Dinah Washington, Marlena Shaw andNancy Wilson, sounds best when belting through a blazing arrangement of "I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water," or sensuously wrapped around a beloved standard like "Guess I'll Hang My Tears Out to Dry."
It's ironic, given the luscious colors of all those horns and strings, that one of the album's standouts would be this simple quartet arrangement of ..."Tears" (bass, piano, brushes, guitar). Moreover—at least to these ears—Payne never sounds better than she does on "Spring Can Really Hang You Up the Most," which is just a duo with Cunliffe's eloquent and lyrical piano. Perhaps the intimacy of the setting makes the communication deeper and more direct; maybe Payne just had a special love for the song. It's also possible that things in the studio were simply more relaxed when it was recorded. In any case, it's a moving and memorable beauty, the crown jewel of a thoroughly enjoyable and versatile collection.

Freda Payne: vocals; Bill Cunliffe: piano, synth; David Stone: bass; Dan Lutz: bass; Jonathan Richards: bass; Curt Bisquera: drums; Joe LaBarbera: drums; Walter Rodriguez: percussion; John Chiodini: guitar; Alisha Bauer: cello; Vanessa Freebairn-Smith: cello; Pete Christlieb: saxophone; Tom Peterson: saxophone; Keith Fiddmont: saxophone; Brian Scanlon: saxophone; Bob Sheppard: saxophone; Nick Mancini: vibraphone; Bob McChesney: trumpet: Carl Saunders: trumpet; Bob Summers: trumpet; Kye Palmer: trumpet; John Papenbook: trumpet; Bijon Watson: trumpet; Jeff Driskill: flute; Ben Devitt: trombone; Andy Martin: trombone; Bob McChesney: trombone: Ira Nepus: trombone; Briana Bandy: viola; Scott Hosfeld: viola; Jessica Vanvelzen Freer: viola; Amy Shulman: harp; Clayton Haslop: violin; Sharon Jackson: violin; Peter Kent: violin; Barbara Porter: violin; Erica Walczak: violin; John Wittenberg: violin; Judy Yoo: violin.