Mary Stallings & the Chester Thompson Quartet w/ Special Guest Houston Person

A supremely soulful jazz singer, San Francisco native Mary Stallings has appeared alongside jazz greats including Cal Tjader, Dizzy Gillespie and the Count Basie Orchestra over her stellar career. With her supple sense of swing, blues-inflected phrasing, and gift for empathic interpretation, it’s easy to see why The New York Times declared her “the best jazz singer alive today.”
With over 75 albums to his credit as a leader, Houston Person is the greatest living saxophonist of the soul jazz tradition. He’s collaborated with a staggering roster of greats, including long-term associations with vocalist Etta Jones and organists Johnny “Hammond” Smith as well as Shirley Scott, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Charles Earland, and Don Patterson.
“Fast fingered and ferociously swinging” (SF Chronicle), Thompson recorded and performed for four decades with two of the legendary bands to emerge in the 1960s and 1970s, Tower of Power and Santana. Thompson released his 1971 debut Powerhouse before embarking on his decade-long tenure with Tower of Power at the height of their popularity, and during his 26-year stay with Santana, he recorded eight albums including their 1999 multiple GRAMMY-winning commercial zenith Supernatural. Thompson dove headlong back into jazz in 2009 and released his second album as leader, Mixology, featuring saxophonist Howard Wiley and former Miles Davis guitarist Barry Finnerty, who both join the organist on the bandstand for these shows.