Patti Austin is that rare vocalist who transcends styles and eras with a big voice and personality to match. Whether singing the R&B numbers that marked her early successes, chart-topping pop love songs like “Baby, Come to Me” or exhibiting her jazz chops that took home a Grammy Award in 2008 for Best Jazz Album, “Avant Gershwin,” she remains at the top of her game after more than a half century. She celebrates the departure of 2011 by dedicating her hit song, “Soldier Boy,” to the troops returning home from Iraq, and welcomes 2012 with a New Year’s Eve concert at the Kennedy Center devoted to Duke Ellington’s music, a prelude to her upcoming album.

“Duke was a giant,” she said. “The music he and Gershwin wrote is just as fresh today as when it was composed. I’m thrilled to perform at the Kennedy Center with a six-piece band and the material we recorded with the same producer of our Gershwin album, Michael Abene.”