Mary Lou Williams Zodiac Suite: The Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945 Digital Life Music

Zodiac Suite: The Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945
by: Mary Lou Williams

Used Price: $51.90

Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0604997600221
Format: Live
Label: Jazz Classics
Manufacturer: Jazz Classics
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Jazz Classics
Release Date: July 09, 1996
Sales Rank: 631998
Studio: Jazz Classics

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Album Description:
Smithsonian Folkways proudly celebrated the 50th anniversary of the original Asch Records release of Mary Lou Williams' work, Zodiac Suite. Performing solo and accompanied by bassist Al Lucas and drummer Jack Parker, Williams crafted these pieces as a series of dedications to fellow musicians born under each astrological sign. This 12-part interpretation of the zodiac was crafted so each movement comprises a set of jazz tone poems. Six alternate takes, mastered from the original acetates, are featured on this reissue. 'Irresistible themes...blending sophistication and intimacy.' - DownBeat

Amazon.com:
With just a casual interest in astrology, Mary Lou Williams created her 1945 Zodiac Suite as a series of character sketches, musical portraits of friends from each sign that she would debut on a weekly radio show. 'Aries' is for Ben Webster and Billie Holiday, 'Taurus' for Duke Ellington, and 'Libra' for Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk. The pieces include piano solos, duets with bassist Al Lucas, and trios with the addition of drummer Jack 'The Bear' Parker. The suite is both a remarkable exercise in extended composition and an index of Williams's varied palette. Her mix of blues and boogie roots and strikingly modernist harmonies is sometimes similar to Monk's, while her lighter, impressionist playing can evoke Claude Debussy (and the way Debussy colored the piano music of Bix Beiderbecke). The cumulative work, though, has a warmly sustained lyricism that can only suggest comparisons with Ellington. The Zodiac Suite would assume more ambitious forms, with a chamber orchestra setting for the entire suite later in 1945 and a large orchestra adaptation of three movements a year later. Dizzy Gillespie recorded three movements with his big band in 1957. But the intimacy of these original recordings is very special, with Williams effectively blurring the line between composition and improvisation. --Stuart Broomer

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Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- 13 monsters
i wonder why they have that weird looking cover pictured. mine looks nothing like that. anyhow, the music on here is of the highest quality, especially considering it was all written by a female. it is all very pleasant to listen to, the playing is first-class throughout, and the compositions are exceptional. i bought this at the smithsonian folk festival a few summers ago. i'm not really sure why i chose to give it four stars. maybe it deserves five.

Rating:

- One for the stars
Mary Lou Williams is a pianist from the galaxy of pianists who came from the Greater Pittsburgh area - Earl Hines, Erroll Garner, Billy Strayhorn, Johnny Costa, etc... she had a pile driving left hand at the piano and a wide-ranging imagination when it came to writing music. This album is another fine exmple of her thinking. I don't think she ever received the fame she deserved...as a musician or as a composer.

Rating:

- Pisces waltzes in a dream...
A delightful collection of "miniatures" in which Mary Lou Williams - not an expert at astrology - accurately captures certain attributes of the various signs by observing them in people she knew & making them into music, much as Virgil Thomson did in his Portraits. Taurus plods along heavily. Pisces waltzes in a dream. Scorpio is sneaky. Cancer is a Debussyan moon. Fun for fans of jazz piano & maybe more than that for the astrologically-inclined. Sound quality is rough, to say the least, but it's like peeking at Mary Lou's private journal.

Bob Rixon, WFMU-FM

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Music : Zodiac Suite: The Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945
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Music : Zodiac Suite: The Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945 Digital Life Average Rating:

Digital Life is all about Mary Lou Williams
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Music : Zodiac Suite: The Town Hall Concert of December 31, 1945
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