Welcome, music sloots to another edition of Manor Music Monday, today by way of a San Francisco gal with incredible talent and understated class, a combo we don't see much in performers these days of any ilk, if at all. Better still, she's still truckin' at age 86. And though it's wintertime, her music will bring back summer. Just listen and you'll feel the heat, the light humidity, a chill band and her freshly reviving voice. Also, San Francisco must have something in the water, because so many terrific jazz vocalists seem to hail from there. It can't be a coincidence. Case in point, Mary Stallings, born in 1939 in the city, the middle child of 11 siblings. Get this: she's also the niece of saxophonist Orlando Stallings, who introduced her to jazz when she was just a wee one after overhearing her scatting to Dizzy Gillespie's "Oop-Bop-Sh'bam." She performed briefly with Uncle Orlando's band and with her church, and while she was still...

Greetings, music trollops, and welcome to another edition of Manor Music Monday. Are you still bloated from the holidays? Do you just want to kick back and drink and chillax with a jazz songstress who knows her stuff and can whisk you away to Happyville? Then pay a visit to "Apres Holiday Boink-Boink," the Manor's exclusive pop-up lounge and donut eatery. Tonight only, DJ Li'l Scratch will be playing tunes by a cult songstress prized by jazz aficionados worldwide.  Presenting the delightfully named Dodo Greene. She's been forgotten by many, but give a listen: her voice is at once jazzy and bluesy and rock 'n' roll. She almost defies categorization, what with her husky, rhythmic, and always emotive, vocal delivery. In other words, she's an astonishing original. And if that's not worth celebrating, then I don't know what is. Born in Buffalo, New York in the early 1920s, she first turned heads while singing as a tween in her church choir, quickly ...

Greetings music vixens, and welcome to another edition of Music Manor Monday, today with a little Italiano flair, va bene ? Tonight, you can find out what this means by moseying on over to Pompino Club and Winery, where DJ Li'l Cat will be playing some tunes from a very special singing principessa . Quick, which jazz luminary also worked as a featured actress in "The Godfather" and "The Godfather II?" There's only one. If you guessed Morgana King, you're right! She played Carmela Corleone, the wife of Don Vito Corleone, or Marlon Brando, in both movies. Interesting side note: the character's first name is never mentioned in either movie, and because she's played by Morgana, she gets to sing a small bit from  "Luna Mezz'o Mare" during the wedding reception scene. The scrappy daughter of Sicilian immigrants, Morgana thrilled audiences from a young age. At 16 years old, she was embraced by New Orleans’ Black audiences at Bohemian Ca...