Radio Personality Jerry Blavat Returns to the Kimmel Center with The Divas of All Time Program, Jan. 26
JANUARY 10, 2013
Featuring Special Guests Darlene Love, Freda Payne, Candi Staton, The Tymes, Baby Washington, Blue Magic, and The Soul Survivors
Jerry Blavat, Philadelphia's DJ Godfather of soul, doo-wop and rock and roll, returns to the Kimmel Center with his The Divas of All Time show on Saturday, January 26, 2013 at 8 p.m. in Verizon Hall. Joined by an all-star line-up of performers, the "Geator with the Heater" takes a walk down memory lane to the good ol' days─ back to when rock was young and soul was just hitting the scene.
Blavat's guests will perform classics from the 50s, 60s and 70s, including: Darlene Love, named one of Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Singers of All Time;" Freda Payne, the songstress behind the hit "Band of Gold;" Candi Staton, renowned southern soul singer dubbed the ‘Sweetheart of Soul’ for her Grammy-nominated hits like “Stand By Your Man” and “In the Ghetto;” The Tymes, Philadelphia natives celebrated for their 1963 debut single “So Much In Love;” Baby Washington, the sultry voiced singer notable for topping the R&B charts in four different decades with such hits as “That’s How Heartaches Are Made;” Blue Magic, the Philadelphia hit makers behind “Sideshow;” and The Soul Survivors, the Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff produced group with classics like “Expressway to Your Heart.”
Tickets for Jerry Blavat's The Divas of All Time range in price from $41 to $81 and can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A cultural icon in Philadelphia, Jerry Blavat is well-known for his electrifying on-air personality and encyclopedic knowledge of music, writers and performers. With more than 45 years of radio experience, South Philadelphia's "Boss with the Hot Sauce" Jerry Blavat was the first DJ to play hits such as "Sherry" by the Four Seasons and "Twist and Shout" by the Isley Brothers on air in the Philadelphia region. Beginning in March 1965, Blavat produced and hosted the "Discophonic Scene" on WCAU-TV 10, featuring only live performances, including The Supremes' only Philadelphia television appearance. In 1967, WIFL-TV 6 offered the Geator a daily show called "Jerry's Place," which was eventually syndicated coast-to-coast in 42 markets. Blavat began hosting "On the Air With the Geator" in 1992 and "Backstage with Jerry Blavat" in 1997. In 1998 he was one of the radio greats inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Since then, Blavat has appeared on the PBS fundraising event "DooWop 50" and "DooWop 51."
Darlene Love began her musical career with "girl group" The Blossoms in 1958, and went on to work with many legends of 1950's and 60's rock and soul, including Dionne Warwick, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, and Sonny and Cher. Under her own name, Love recorded several chart-topping singles including "Wait Til My Bobby Gets Home" and "(Today I Met) The Boy I'm Going To Marry," as well as two solo albums. Love sang back-up for Dionne Warwick for 10 years beginning in 1971 and later backed Aretha Franklin. During the 1990's, Love performed weekly in Portrait of a Singer, a show based on her career, at New York City's Bottom Line Club. Love was awarded the Rhythm and Blues Foundation's Pioneer Award in 1995. She has performed "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on the Late Show with David Letterman annually since 1986.
Freda Payne, a talented singer and actress, moved to New York in 1963 to follow her dreams of musical stardom. After some success on her own, Payne joined famed Invictus record label in 1969. Almost immediately following the release of Payne's first record with Invictus, her single "Band of Gold" became a favorite pop hit, reaching #3 in the US and hitting #1 on the U.K. singles chart and remaining there for six weeks in September 1970. In April 2009, Payne appeared on American Idol to sing her classic hit and in February 2010, she joined vocalists Kanye West, Jennifer Hudson and Barbara Streisand on the "We Are the World: 25 for Haiti" charity single.
Candi Staton, the ‘Sweetheart of Soul’, began her career in Hanceville, AL as a singer in the Jewell Gospel Trio and toured the traditional gospel circuit throughout the 1950s along with such legends as the Soul Stirrers, C.L. Franklin, and Mahalia Jackson. In 1968 Staton launched her solo career as the ‘First Lady of Southern Soul’ garnering 16 R&B hits for Rick Hall’s legendary Fame Studios. These included her two Grammy-nominated songs, “Stand By Your Man” and “In the Ghetto.” Staton also dabbled in disco, recording dance songs like “Young Hearts Run Free” and “Victim” with producer Dave Crawford. After recording eight successful gospel albums, two which received Grammy nominations, in 1995 Staton joined Intersound Records and started to sing her old R&B hits once again. She released a secular music record in 2006, His Hands, the title track penned by critic favorite Will Oldham and a follow up in 2009, Who’s Hurting Now?
Originally the Latineers, after four years on the club scene Philadelphia-based ensemble gained lead singer George Williams and in 1960 changed their name to The Tymes. In 1963 they scored their biggest hit with the Billboard Hot 100 chart-topper, “So Much In Love” followed by a hit rendition of Johnny Mathis’ “Wonderful, Wonderful.” The group continued to make music throughout the sixties and seventies, including the 1976 hit “It’s Cool.”
Born in South Carolina and raised in Harlem, Justine ‘Baby’ Washington, known for her sultry delivery, churned out R&B hits in no less than four different decades. A member of the Hearts in 1956, she scored her first R&B hit in 1959 with “The Time”. Her biggest hit came with the release of the uptown soul classic “That’s How Heartaches Are Made” for Sue Records in 1963. Baby continued to turn out hits that scaled the soul charts well into the mid ‘70s including the hit “Only Those in Love.”
The R&B vocal quintet, Blue Magic, is a true Philadelphia original. Signed to Atlantic Records in 1973 the group consisting of Theodore Mills, Vernon Sawyer, Wendell Sawyer, Keith Beaton, and Richard Pratt hit the R&B Top 40 innumerous times throughout the seventies in addition to having such crossover hits like “Sideshow” and “Three Ring Circus.” After some time off, they came back in 1989 to release a comeback album, From Out of the Blue.
The Soul Survivors are one of the first notable productions from the Philadelphia songwriting and record-producing wizards, Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff. Gamble and Huff worked with the Soul Survivors on their giant 1967 hit “Expressway to Your Heart.” The song features an intricate array of honking horns and automotive sounds effects, but its primary strength lies in the soulful vocals and pounding beat.
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KIMMEL CENTER, INC., a charitable, not-for-profit organization, owns, manages, supports and maintains The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, which includes Verizon Hall, Perelman Theater, Innovation Studio and the Merck Arts Education Center. Kimmel Center, Inc. also manages the Academy of Music, owned by the Philadelphia Orchestra Association, and the University of the Arts Merriam Theater. Our mission is to operate a world class performing arts center that engages and serves a broad audience which includes providing arts in education, community outreach and a rich diversity of programming. For additional information, visit kimmelcenter.org.
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