Mary Stallings
| Mary Stallings | |
|---|---|
| Born |
August 16, 1939 San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Genres | Vocal jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Years active | 1950s–present |
| Labels | Clarity, Concord Jazz, Maxjazz, Half Note, HighNote |
| Website | www |
Mary Stallings (born August 16, 1939) is an American jazz vocalist and mother of soul singer Adriana Evans.
Mary Stallings was born in San Francisco, California, one of eleven children. She grew up in the neighborhood of Laurel Heights, singing in the black gospel choir of the First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. By her teens, Stallings began singing in San Francisco-area night clubs such as the Hungry i, The Purple Onion, and El Matador. She performed with such artists as Ben Webster, Cal Tjader, Earl Hines, Red Mitchell, Teddy Edwards, and the Montgomery brothers (Wes, Monk, and Buddy).
Before graduating from high school, she joined R&B pioneer Louis Jordan's Tympani Five. In the early 1960s, she performed with Dizzy Gillespie at San Francisco's Black Hawk nightclub and eventually with Gillespie at the 1965 Monterey Jazz Festival.
She is perhaps best known for her 1961 collaboration with vibraphonist Cal Tjader on the album Cal Tjader Plays, Mary Stallings Sings on Fantasy Records. Engagements in Tokyo, Manila and Bangkok ensued, along with work up and down the West Coast. She spent a year in the late 1960s performing in Nevada with Billy Eckstine, and toured South America with Gillespie's band in 1965 and 1966. She has shared the bill with singers such as Joe Williams, Tony Bennett and Ella Fitzgerald. From 1969–1972, she had a three-year residency as the Count Basie Orchestra "girl singer." In 1972, in semi-retirement, she gave birth to her only child, R&B singer Adriana Evans.
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