Grammy Award-winning Patti Austin steals her own tribute at the SFJazz Gala

After describing Patti Austin as a “master of collaboration” for her work with Michael Jackson, Diana Ross and Quincy Jones, SFJazz’s new Executive Artistic Director Terence Blanchard handed the Grammy Award-winning vocalist the microphone. Looking runway-ready in a sleek white gown and ready with an uncensored quip, she promptly took over the evening. 

Honoring Austin with a lifetime achievement award, the SFJazz Gala, a jubilant affair hosted at the SFJazz Center on the night of Thursday, May 9, featured a powerhouse roster of talent. Making a statement with a New Orleans-heavy program, Blanchard’s bill included former Bay Area R&B star Ledisi, Tony Award winner Brian Stokes Mitchell, pianist/vocalist PJ Morton and the trumpeter himself, wielding his horn both acoustically unadorned and with electronic effects.

They’d all delivered some impressive performances before Blanchard called up the evening’s honoree to accept her award, and Austin stole her own show without singing a note. “I’d forgotten I’d done all that horny, sexy music,” she said. 

Sassy and ready to dish, Austin noted that August will mark her “70th anniversary in this business of show,” a career launched from the hallowed stage of Harlem’s Apollo Theater when she competed in an amateur contest at the age of 4. By the 1980s, she was sharing the same manager as Michael Jackson and Madonna, revealing that she moved on and found more attentive representation when his signing of Lionel Richie ensured she’d get the short end of the stick. In jazz, this is what’s known as a First World problem. 

As for the hotness of her music, Stokes Mitchell’s rendition of Brazilian composer Ivan Lins’ “The Island” leaned into the song’s erotic lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. Austin introduced the future standard on her hit 1981 Quincy Jones-produced album, “Every Home Should Have One.” When she met with the couple to retrieve the song, Alan denied any credit for the steamy narrative. “He said, ‘It’s all her,’” Austin recalled, offering a peek at the legendary songwriting team’s marriage-cum-work dynamics. 

With New Orleans-bred Arthel Neville serving as emcee, Blanchard’s first gala as SFJazz’s executive artistic director was a glitzy, less jazz-focused affair that started with an exclusive show for big donors by jazz vocalist Jane Monheit and concluded with a late-night dance set by Crescent City funksters Dumpstaphunk. Randall Kline, the organization’s founder who handed the baton to Blanchard after guiding SFJazz for four decades, was in the house, a fact briefly noted with oddly little fanfare.  

The evening’s musical highlight came courtesy of vocalist and songwriter Siedah Garrett, another master of collaboration with Michael Jackson credits. Her version of “Baby, Come to Me,” Austin’s chart-topping duet with James Ingram from “Every Home Should Have One,” was a tour de force as she pivoted to cover both roles, answering herself with Ingram’s soulful cadences (a vocal feat perfected by Austin in her solo shows). 

Accompanying himself on electric piano, Morton inhabited Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)” and Ledisi ripped through Austin’s insistently torrid “The Heat of the Heat.” But the evening’s brisk pace shortchanged the occasion, as most of the featured artists came and went without remarks. Like Austin, Ledisi has jazz roots and can sing anything, and it felt like a missed opportunity she didn’t get to offer her own tribute to a fellow Grammy winner. 

The SFJazz Collective served as the core of the house band, handling the assignment with finesse.  But they were sorely underutilized. With three backup vocalists and a string quartet, the arrangements were consistently plush, a more-is-more aesthetic that left little room for the music to breathe. 

A duet between collective members or a solo horn piece would have offered some welcome contrast. It’s the SFJazz Center, a space built for intense, close listening. Sometimes the best script is no script.

Andrew Gilbert is a freelance writer.