Artist

Patti Austin

New York City, United States • b. 1950

Patti Austin is a musician from New York City, United States, active since 1950. Their discography on Gatefold includes 24 records.

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Albums tracked

In collections

1950

Since

Biography

Patti Austin (born August 10, 1950, in Harlem New York) is a Grammy Award winning singer who records in various styles of secular music including Adult Contemporary, Dance-pop, Pop, Soul, R&B, and Jazz. 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 Austin was a prolific session musician and commercial jingle singer.

The Arc of Patti Austin

The pivots — what forced Patti Austin to reinvent.

The CTI Sessions
Producer Creed Taylor put her in Rudy Van Gelder's legendary studio for her 1976 debut End of a Rainbow. Backed by session giants like bassist Will Lee and percussionist Ralph MacDonald, she delivered a masterclass in sophisticated jazz-soul fusion. These sessions prioritized live room chemistry over studio gimmicks, allowing her pristine vocal control to anchor complex arrangements. You can hear the lack of post-production polish in the way her voice interacts organically with the Rhodes piano.
The Quincy Jones Hit Machine
Moving to Qwest Records in 1981 changed her trajectory overnight when Quincy Jones paired her with James Ingram. The resulting duet Baby, Come to Me became a massive number one hit after getting featured on a daytime soap opera. The production shifted away from gritty jazz-funk toward glossy, synthesized adult contemporary pop engineered to dominate FM radio. This era traded her complex vocal improvisations for rigid, verse-chorus pop structures designed for mass appeal.
The Eighty-Eight Jazz Pivot
Tired of chasing the shrinking market for synthesized dance-pop, she signed with GRP Records to record 1988's The Real Me. The album was a deliberate retreat from the high-gloss production of her mid-eighties output, focusing on standards by Duke Ellington and Cole Porter. She stripped away the drum machines, bringing in live brass and acoustic arrangements to prove her chops to the jazz establishment. Her performance on the record relies on swing and phrasing rather than the vocal gymnastics of her pop years.

Influences

Dinah Washington — Washington was Austin's godmother and actively mentored her after she performed at the Apollo Theater as a child. You can hear this lineage in Austin's blues-inflected phrasing and her absolute refusal to overscream a lyric. It is the direct link to her impeccable vocal timing.
Ella Fitzgerald — Austin recorded the tribute album For Ella in 2002 to pay direct homage to the vocalist who shaped her improvisational style. On her late-career jazz recordings, you can hear Fitzgerald's influence in the clarity of Austin's scat singing and her ability to mimic horn lines with her voice. It is a masterclass in vocal agility.
Sarah Vaughan — Vaughan's rich vibrato and deep operatic register served as a blueprint for Austin's lower-range ballad delivery. The influence shows up in the way Austin holds sustained notes on her early CTI slow-burn tracks. She mimics Vaughan's ability to shift effortlessly between registers.
Ray Charles — Austin performed with Charles during her early years on the touring circuit as a child prodigy. The soul-meets-country phrasing Charles pioneered is evident in the way Austin injects a rootsy, gospel-inflected grit into her otherwise clean pop sessions. She learned how to command a big band arrangement from watching him lead his orchestra.
Judy Garland — Austin has frequently cited Garland's emotional vulnerability and theatrical delivery as a primary source of inspiration for her stage show. In her performances of traditional pop standards, she adopts Garland's dramatic pacing, treating each lyric like a script. This influence is especially clear on her 1988 album of standards.