MARY LOU WILLIAMS: The London Sessions

MARY LOU WILLIAMS
Da série "Elas tocam como homens" (copyright: "Turma do Beco das Garrafas"), chegou a vez de  MARY LOU WILLIAMS, uma das maiores e mais importantes pianistas e arranjadoras da história do Jazz. Você duvida? Então dê uma olhada na biografia de MLW aí embaixo: a moça foi PROFESSORA e mentora intelectual de Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie & Tad Dameron, aos quais ensinou o "caminho das pedras" - o uso dos acordes (e escalas) com a "quinta diminuta", que abriu as portas para o "Bebop". Não por acaso, Mary Lou era considerada a "mãe do Bebop".  É mole ou quer mais?

(*) Thelonious Monk, com a maior desfaçatez, roubou - literalmente - um tema escrito por ela, sem mudar uma nota, e deu a ele o título de "Rhythming". Que amigo...Mas querem saber? Eu acho que foi por sacanagem: Monk era um gênio e não precisava roubar nada de ninguém...
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MARY LOU WILLIAMS
Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist and composer and arranger. She penned charts for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Mary Lou Williams was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Born as Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, she grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of eleven children. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens. She cited Lovie Austin as her greatest influence. At age six Williams was already helping to support her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing for parties. She began performing publicly at the age of seven, when she became known admiringly in Pittsburgh as "the little piano girl of East Liberty". In 1924, age 14 she was taken on the Orpheum Circuit. The following year she played with Duke Ellington and his early small band, the Washingtonians. One high and learned salute to her talent came when she was only 15. One morning at 3 she was jamming with McKinney's Cotton Pickers at Harlem's Rhythm Club. The great Louis Armstrong entered the room and paused to listen to her. Mary Lou shyly tells what presently happened: "Louis picked me up and kissed me." In 1927 Williams married saxophonist John Williams. She met him at a performance in Cleveland where he was leading his group, the Syncopators, and moved with him to Memphis, Tennessee. He assembled a band in Memphis, which included Mary Lou on piano. In 1929 he accepted an invitation to join Andy Kirk's band in Oklahoma City, leaving 19-year-old Mary Lou to head the Memphis band for its remaining tour dates. Williams eventually joined her husband in Oklahoma City but did not play with the band. The group, now known as Andy Kirk's "Twelve Clouds of Joy", relocated to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Williams spent her free time transporting bodies for an undertaker. When the Clouds of Joy accepted a longstanding engagement in Kansas City, Missouri, Williams joined her husband there and began sitting in with the band, as well as serving as its arranger and composer. She provided Kirk with such songs as "Walkin' and Swingin'", "Twinklin'", "Cloudy'", "Little Joe from Chicago" and others. From the first sides Kirk made in Kansas City, Williams was on board as pianist and arranger. (6 sides were recorded in Kansas City during 1929 and remaining 17 sides were recorded in Chicago in 1930, and a further 2 were recorded in New York in 1930.) During one of those trips to Chicago in 1930, Williams recorded "Drag 'Em" and "Night Life" as piano solos. Williams took the name "Mary Lou" at the suggestion of Brunswick's Jack Kapp. The record sold briskly, raising Williams to national prominence. Soon after the recording session she signed on as Kirk's permanent second pianist, playing solo gigs and working as a freelance arranger for such noteworthy names as Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, and Tommy Dorsey. In 1937 she produced In the Groove (Brunswick), a collaboration with Dick Wilson, and Benny Goodman asked Mary to write a blues for his band. The result was "Roll 'Em", a boogie-woogie piece based on the blues, which followed her successful "Camel Hop", Goodman's theme song for his radio show sponsored by Camel cigarettes. Goodman tried to put Williams under contract to write for him exclusively, but she refused, preferring  freelance. In 1942, Williams, who had divorced her husband, left the "Twelve Clouds of Joy" band, returning again to Pittsburgh. She was joined there by bandmate Harold "Shorty" Baker, with whom she formed a six-piece ensemble that included Art Blakey on drums. After a lengthy engagement in Cleveland, Baker left to join Duke Ellington's orchestra. Williams joined the band in New York, and then traveled to Baltimore, where she and Baker were married. She traveled with Ellington and arranged several tunes for him, including "Trumpets No End" (1946), her version of Irving Berlin's "Blue Skies".[6] She also sold Ellington on performing "Walkin' and Swingin'". Within a year she had left Baker and the group and returned to New York. Mary Lou Williams in her apartment with Jack Teagarden, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Dizzy Gillespie. Foto: William P. Gottlieb. Williams accepted a regular gig at the Café Society Downtown, started a weekly radio show called "Mary Lou Williams's Piano Workshop" on WNEW, and began mentoring and collaborating with many younger bebop musicians, most notably Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk. In 1945 Williams composed the bebop hit "In the Land of Oo-Bla-Dee" for Dizzy Gillespie. "During this period Monk and the kids would come to my apartment every morning around four or pick me up at the Café after I'd finished my last show, and we'd play and swap ideas until noon or later", Williams recalled in Melody Maker. Although closely aligned with the bop musicians during her time in New York, Williams also staged a large-scale orchestral rendition of her composition Zodiac Suite at New York's Town Hall in 1945, isasued on Folkways label, with bassist Al Lucas and drummer Jack "The Bear" Parker, and the New York Philharmonic. In 1952 Williams accepted an offer to perform in England and ended up staying in Europe for two years. When she returned to the United States she took a hiatus from performing, dedicating herself to the Catholic faith. Her energies were devoted mainly to the Be Canto Foundation, an effort she initiated to help addicted musicians return to performing. Two priests and Dizzy Gillespie convinced her to return to playing, which she did at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival with Dizzy's band. Father Peter O'Brien became her close friend and personal manager in the 1960s. Together they found new venues for jazz performance at a time when no more than two clubs in Manhattan had jazz full-time. In addition to club work Mary played colleges, formed her own record label and publishing companies, founded the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival and made television appearances. Throughout the 1960s her composing focused on sacred music - hymns and masses. One of the masses, Music for Peace, was choreographed and performed by the Alvin Ailey  Dance Theater as “Mary Lou's Mass”. She performed the revision of "Mary Lou's Mass" on the television, The Dick Cavett Show in 1971. She wrote and performed religious jazz music like Black Christ of the Andes (1963), a hymn in honor of the St. Martin de Porres; two short works, Anima Christi and Praise the Lord. In this period Mary put much effort into working with youth choirs to perform her works, including mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York before a gathering of over three thousand. She set up a charitable organization and opened thrift stores in Harlem, directing the proceeds, along with ten percent of her own earnings, to musicians in need. As an 1964 Time article explains, "Mary Lou thinks of herself as a 'soul' player — a way of saying that she never strays far from melody and the blues, but deals sparingly in gospel harmony and rhythm. Throughout the 1970s her career flourished, including numerous albums, including as solo pianist and commentator recorded The History of Jazz. She returned to the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1971. She had a two-piano performance with avant-garde pianist Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall in 1977. She accepted an appointment at Duke University as artist-in-residence (from 1977 to 1981), co-teaching the History of Jazz with Father Peter O'Brien and directing the Duke Jazz Ensemble. With a light teaching schedule, she also did many concert and festival appearances, conducted clinics with youth, and in 1978 performed at the White House. Her final recording, Solo Recital (Montreux Jazz Festival, 1978), three years before her death had a medley encompassing spirituals ragtime, blues and swing. Mary Lou Williams died of bladder cancer in Durham, North Carolina, aged 71.
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ALBUM REVIEW
"The London Sessions" contains 2 original Mary Lou Williams Vogue LPs on 1 CD. Mary Lou Williams traveled to London, England in the winter 1953 and sometime in 1954 for these sessions, likely spaced about a year or so apart, with two different British rhythm sections, the common denominator throughout being bongo player Tony Scott. This Vogue album originally titled Mary Lou Williams Plays in London and issued in the U.S. on the GNP Crescendo label as In London, is back on Vogue as The London Sessions. It features several alternate takes that are quite different, a smattering of Latin infused tracks, standards, a few solo performances, and all of the verve, spark, soul, and deep intelligence Williams always brought to any performance area. Of the cuts from 1953 featuring the excellent bassist Allan Ganley and bassist Ken Napper, the emphasis is on extrapolated swing-to-bop as "Perdido," the straight bop of "Lady Bird," Latin tinges tacked onto these tunes, and more straight Afro-Cuban beats from Scott on the cha cha infused B take of "They Can't Take That Away from Me." Two hot versions for the smart set of "Titoros" and one slice of the Williams original "Kool Bongo" -- similar in stance to "Titoros" -- are melodic marvels, rhythmically spurred on via Scott by what some called a trendy gimmick, but actually work well in spiced up parlance. There are also two different solo piano versions, one clipped and shorter, of "'Round About Midnight." The other trio date from 1954 has Tony Kinsey on drums and bassist Lennie Bush, definitely more obscure players. But the results are quite different, as Williams changes keys higher and lower on versions of "The Man I Love," and "Yesterdays." Her take of the famous "Flying Home" is very modified, with a deeper blue hue and indirect nuances of the basic melody. She takes the Wild Bill Davis evergreen "Azure Te" in a faster bop mode, and does the mambo with Scott during two versions of "Just One of Those Things." Three originals of Williams crop up; the evocative sundown cocktail number "Twilight," her famous easy swinger "Nickels," and the inquisitive and lonely solo heart wrencher "Why?" The contrasting moods, techniques, and of course the utter brilliance of Williams shines through from top to bottom. A valuable document of her work in this time frame, this is likely a must-have item, not only for fans of the undisputed first lady in jazz, but for students, educators, and any true lover of great music.
 ~ Michael G. Nastos (CD Universe)
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MINHA OPINIÃO
Este álbum reúne uma série de gravações por Mary Lou Williams e seu trio, em Londres. O detalhe é o clima latino, temperado pelo bongô de Tony Scott. Uma das faixas de que mais gosto é o clássico "Lady Bird", de Tad Dameron. UMA MARAVILHA!
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MARY LOU WILLIAMS: The London Sessions
Recorded in London, England in 1953 & 1954.

PERSONNELL
Mary Lou Williams (piano)
Ken Napper, Lennie Bush (bass)
Allan Ganley, Tony Kinsey (drums)
Tony Scott (bongos).

PERSONNEL:
Mary Lou Williams - piano
Kenny Napper - bass
Lennie Bush - bass
Allan Ganley - drums
Tony Kinsey - drums
Tony Scott - bongos

TRACKS/FAIXAS:
01 Perdido
02 Lady Bird
03 Don't Blame Me
04 Titoros
05 Titoros
06 For You
07 They Can't Take That Away from Me
08 They Can't Take That Away from Me
09 Kool Bongo
10 Round About Midnight
11 Round About Midnight
12 Azure-Te
13 Flying Home
14 Nickels
15 The Man I Love
16 The Man I Love
17 Twilight
18 Just One of Those Things
19 Just One of Those Things
20 Why
21 Yesterdays
22 Yesterdays