Jazz Salon Concert with Legendary Musicians Mary Stallings & Houston Person | July 14

Sunday, July 14, 2024 — 2:00 pm

Join us for a rare pairing of two jazz legends in an intimate and elegant setting. Joining them to round out their quintet are one of LA’s top women jazz drummers, Lauren Ellis, New York pianist John DiMartino, and bassist Dave Ross, whose grandmother was a former president of The Ebell.

Mary Stallings
Mary Stallings, now 85, starting singing with Dizzy Gillespie when she was just 15. She performed with many of the jazz greats of the era, including Ben Webster, Billy Eckstein, Wes Montgomery, Louie Jordan, Earl Hines and Cal Tjader, before joining the Basie Band. Retiring at age 30 to raise a family, she returned to singing in her 50s, when the NY Times review opened with, “Perhaps the finest jazz singer singing today” In 2017, she became only the 3rd woman in history to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the prestigious San Sebastian Jazz Festival, joining the ranks of previous jazz giants Max Roach, Clark Terry, Ray Brown, Elvin Jones, Keith Jarrett, Charles Mingus, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter.

Houston Person
Saxophonist Houston Person, at age 89, might be best known for the 30 years he spent producing, managing and performing with the Grammy-winning vocalist Etta Jones, but Houston has recorded over 75 albums, with jazz artists including Ron Carter, Bill Charlap, Emmett Cohen, Lene Horne, Lou Rawls, Janis Siegel, Horace Silver, Dakota Staton, Cedar Walton, Grant Green, Johnny “Hammond” Smith and Richard “Groove” Holmes. Mr. Person writes, “I want to give people good solid melodies with some improvisation and plenty of blues feel. You always want that dance feeling there, that happy, happy feeling.”