Three of the Puget Sound region’s greatest jazz singers are coming to Tacoma Musical Playhouse (TMP) June 5 as part of Jazz@TMP 2010’s, “Les Femmes du Jazz.”

This refreshing annual concert series, hosted by TMP and Lance Buller, has featured some of the region’s hottest jazz talent live on the stage, including Pearl Django, Greta Matassa, Swing Reunion Orchestra and more. This year’s performance features the incomparable talents of Greta Matassa, Gail Pettis and Stephanie Porter, who will be performing onstage together for the first time in their careers.

Event organizer Lance Buller says that these jazz greats are all very familiar with each other, but have never worked together, which affirms the event will be a great opportunity for local jazz fans.

“They all hang out, are familiar with each other, and yet they’ve never happened to have a show together. Porter and Matassa are Northwest natives, but Pettis is a native of Henderson, Kentucky,” Buller said. “They’re all top level singers, three of the best in the country, all on the same level, but with styles different enough to make for an interesting show.”

The first half of the event will be dedicated to each of the singers taking the spotlight individually, and introducing those audience members who’ve never experienced their voices to their styles. The second half of “Les Femmes du Jazz” is to be composed of duos and trios, but will be true to the nature of jazz and be unpredictably spontaneous.

While Buller desires to keep the song lineup a secret until the event, he did affirm that the majority of the songs that Matassa, Pettis and Porter will impart to listeners will not be too surprising of choices.

“Many of them will be taken from the Great American Songbook,” Buller stated. “There will be lots of standards, in addition to some new things. They all have favorites to do, but they also want to try new things and formulas. It will take on a loose framework, we left it open so that it was about what they wanted to do.”

The backing band for the evening will be the Bill Ramsay Quartet, led by venerable local saxophonist Bill Ramsay, who will set the stage for the three jazz queens quite well. The celebrity emcee for “Les Femmes du Jazz” is Dick Stein, notably popular from his gig as radio DJ for jazz station, KPLU 88.5.

Buller says that the location of the event at TMP as opposed to a traditional jazz club, already sets the stage for a unique experience. “Tacoma Musical Playhouse is just big enough, and has a different vibe. Here we have professional lighting and sound, and to have the audience face the singers, they’ll feel their energy, and it bounces back to them.”

Anyone interested in jazz, especially local will take something away from this one-of-a-kind event, but Buller affirms that the event will be especially impactful on a certain group.

“Students, especially those with an interest in music ... would be intrigued by an event like this. This is a rare opportunity to see history in the making, and the singers are all excited. Shows like this usually happen in Seattle, but we wanted to bring high-quality shows to Tacoma, too.”

“Les Femmes du Jazz” performs for one night only and takes place June 5 at 8 p.m. at the Tacoma Musical Playhouse, located at 7116 6th Ave. All seating is reserved, so advance purchase is strongly recommended for this series. Tickets for this event are $25 and there will be a meet and greet with the vocalists after the event. For tickets or more information, call the TMP box office at (253) 565-6867 or visit www.tmp.org.