In the '60s and '70s, West Coast singer Mary Stallings performed with Dizzy Gillespie, recorded with Cal Tjader, and sang with The Count Basie Orchestra. Then she dropped out of the music scene for years before reemerging in the '90s. On 2012's excellent Don't Look Back, she's accompanied by pianist Eric Reed, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Carl Allen. The album opens with Benny Carter and Spencer Williams’ “When Lights Are Low,” and Stallings immediately dazzles the listener with her control and nuance: she's both precise and soulful, a singer who shapes every inflection just so. “The Way You Love Me” is taken at a snail’s pace, and both Stallings and the band wring meaning from every note and timbre. “Is That…? (This Love)” features inventive work from Allen and a fine solo from Rogers, while “Mary’s Blues” digs into that idiom in powerful ways. A cover of the well-known Mal Waldron composition “Soul Eyes” displays the masterful way that Stallings combines a variety of vocal colors. A hushed “People Time (Forever Mine),” another Benny Carter gem, wraps things up.