Patti Austin made her Apollo Theater debut at the age of 4 on a dare.
“We went to see the Apollo to see Dinah Washington,” said Austin, who often met renowned musicians growing up through her musical father, a professional trombone player. With some precociousness, Austin ended up on stage. “Dinah dared me to sang, I sang, and I finished singing and ran off the stage. The audience liked it, and I liked that they liked it, and I ran into the arms of a guy who was on one knee in the wing.”
That guy was Sammy Davis Jr., who asked her parents if she could do his show the following week, and a robust musical career was born.
Austin has released 17 solo albums and has performed with the likes of Michael Jackson and Paul Simon. She won a Grammy in 2008 for best jazz vocal for her album “Avant Gershwin.”
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