Tucson jazz and R&B singer Ada Redd Austin is performing her biggest concert since the pandemic on Saturday, Sept. 10, at Dunbar Pavilion.
The βPaint the Town with Soundβ concert is being presented by Tucson podcaster and entrepreneur Jennifer Davis-Paige as a benefit for the Phoenix-area independent jazz and blues radio station KRDP Jazz 90.7 FM, the stateβs only Black-owned and operated radio station.
βIβm really looking forward to this concert,β said Davis-Paige, the CEO and founder of Boom Goddess Radio, which creates podcasts nationwide for women over 50.
Austin will perform a mix of jazz, R&B, pop and blues with her all-star band that includes her longtime keyboardist Doug Martin, saxophonist Michael Moynihan, Mike Levy on bass, Carl Cherry on drums and Steve Smith on guitar.
βI love entertaining; thatβs what I do,β said Austin, who has performed a few smaller gigs since the pandemic, including shows for the Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance. βThatβs my gift and I donβt get to use it as much as I would like to.β
Davis-Paige, who moved to Tucson from Chicago eight years ago after retiring from her executive position with Amtrak, met Austin two years ago when Austin was a guest on her Black History Month podcast.
Austin said she had never heard of KRDP before Davis-Paige invited her to headline the benefit concert. The hope, Davis-Paige said, is to one day get an FCC license to expand the stationβs reach to Tucson.
KRDP was launched online in 2008 as Radio Phoenix until EVIT, a technical high school in Mesa, gifted the frequency to KRDPβs owners, Desert Soul Media Inc., in December 2021.
The stationβs format is a mix of community news, jazz, blues and soul music, public affairs and specialty programming, including a show on travel and food every other Saturday with Davis-Paige, who also has a Boom Goddess Radio show at 3:30 p.m. Sundays on KXCI.
Austin said she would love to see the station find its way to Tucsonβs airwaves. She also is hoping her concert on Saturday introduces her to new audiences and reacquaints her with old fans who havenβt seen her perform much since the pandemic.
A Tucson native, Austin, a retired Tucson school teacher, has been performing since the 1970s, but local gigs, especially since the pandemic, have been few and far between.
βBack in the 1990s and early 2000s, I played at St. Philipβs Plaza, Westward Look (Resort) and the jazz festival, but itβs dried up a lot,β she said, adding that her early resume also includes performances with the Barbea Williams Performing Company and musicals with the Black theater company Ododo Theatre in the 1970s. βItβs hard to get gigs in Tucson.β
Her show Saturday, which starts at 7 p.m. at the Dunbar Pavilion, 325 W. Second St., will include a little bit of everything, she said, from country and rock to covers of jazz great Nancy Wilson to blues from Bonnie Raittβs catalogue and βSummertimeβ from βPorgy & Bess.β Sheβs also throwing in
some Anita Baker, original jazz and R&B and a little gospel, she said.
Tickets are $30 through brownpapertickets.com; VIP tickets are $250 through listen2kdrp.com.
