Pala Jam to feature R&B artists

PALA – Pala Jam will feature three of R&B’s top stars – Evelyn “Champagne” King, The S.O.S. Band and Jody Watley – Saturday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. on the Events Center stage at Pala Casino Spa and Resort.

King came to fame during the disco era and remained prominent through much of the ‘80s with over two dozen charting singles. She has a showbiz lineage. Her uncle was actor, singer and dancer Avon Long, who first played Sportin’ Life in the play “Porgy and Bess” and later starred in the ‘70s play “Bubblin’ Brown Sugar.”

King’s father, Erik King, was a singer and often augmented groups that appeared at New York’s Apollo Theater. By her teens, she had relocated to Philadelphia with her mother and began singing in several groups. Her first hit single was “Dancin,’ Dancin,’ Dancin,” but it was a later hit, “Shame,” that launched her career.

The S.O.S. Band hit with a two-million-selling single, “Take Your Time (Do It Right),” their first time out, before having several hit singles written and produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. The Atlanta-based band was started in 1977, when keyboardist and vocalist Jason Bryant, saxophonists Billy Ellis and Willie “Sonny” Killebrew, guitarist Bruno Speight, bassist John Alexander Simpson, drummer James Earl Jones III and lead vocalist Mary Davis formed a group called Santa Monica that played at the Atlanta nightclub, the Regal Room.

Watley, a singer, songwriter, producer and businesswoman, is one of the architects of 21st century pop. From her groundbreaking marriage of rap and R&B of 1987’s “Friends,” a collaboration with hip-hop legends Eric B. and Rakim, to her vision-forward marriage of high fashion, street fashion and music in the ‘80s long before it became the norm, to her fusion of jazz and underground club culture with keen pop instincts and the ease with which she crossed and still crosses genre, she forged the template that is now everybody’s playbook.

Winner of the Grammy award for “Best New Artist” in 1987, Watley spent her entire career looking forward, drawing inspiration from personal heroes and iconoclasts who were and are always 10 steps ahead of the pack. The Chicago native’s eclectic repertoire – R&B, hip-hop, house, jazz, pop, drum and bass, ambient, spoken-word – is built on a positive vision and a strong taste for artistic and aesthetic risk.

Tickets are on sale, with no service charge, at the Pala Box Office in the casino, or call (877) 946-7252) or visit http://www.palacasino.com. Tickets also available at http://www.startickets.com or by phone at (800) 385-3737.

Submitted by Pala Casino Spa and Resort.