LOS ANGELES (KNX) — Marty Roberts, of the long-running Los Feliz lounge duo “Marty & Elayne,” died from cancer on Thursday. He was 89 years old.
The news was announced Tuesday on the Facebook page for “Marty & Elayne.”
“My mom and I are devastated by his loss and there is nobody that could ever take his place,” Roberts’ daughter, Hali Gillin, wrote on the page. “He had a joke and a smile (smiling is free, he would say!) for everyone he met and was the kindest, most self sacrificing man in the world.”
“Marty & Elayne” was performed regularly at the Dresden Room in Los Feliz for nearly 40 years, six nights a week. Marty sang, played drums and standup bass; his wife, Elayne Roberts, played piano and flute.
The iconic pair were known for wearing matching jumpsuits. They appeared in the 1996 film Swingers with VInce Vaughn and Jon Favreau.
Marty met Elayne in L.A. in 1970. She was a 16-year-old pianist and singer in need of a drummer for a show in Alhambra. They married just four months later, and started playing in a band at the Melody Room on the Sunset Strip. They soon became well-integrated into the city’s jazz scene, recording with genre giants like Jack Sheldon, Med Flory, Red Callender, and Conte Condoli.
Their cameo in Swingers made the duo known around the world, and brought lines around the block to the Dresden Room.
“They’re ridiculous,” Marty told LAist in 2016. “I wouldn’t stand in the rain.”
Elayne told The Los Angeles Times there were plans for a memorial to be held at the Dresden Room at some point in the near future.
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