December 21 - 28, 1 9 9 5

MARY LOU WILLIAMS: JAZZ SAINT

Three recent CD reissues of the music of Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981), jazz pianist and composer, serve as towering monuments to a talent long neglected. Although touted as a major voice by Duke Ellington, Williams had a tough artistic path to follow. An African-American woman who composed ambitious jazz tunes was a rarity when she began her career a half-century ago. To further her "outsider" status, she converted to Catholicism in her 40s, temporarily renounced jazz, then returned to the fold composing jazz Masses for her church. These discs offer plentiful evidence that if jazz wasn't her religion, it certainly was the supreme vehicle for her saintly dedication to spiritual communication through swing.

The new discs on the Smithsonian/Folkways label, Zodiac Suite and Zoning, work as ideal introductory samplers to Williams's art. Zodiac Suite offers piano miniatures organized around the zodiac and the various musical personalities born under its signs. Think of this as a synthesis of Elgar's Enigma Variations (brief portraits of friends) and Holst's The Planets (tone poems evoking archetypal planetary characteristics). Williams encapsulated the essence of each person and planet through subtle coloristic and rhythmic variations on the blues. The high point may be "Libra," which is dedicated to her friends Bud Powell, Art Tatum, and Thelonious Monk: while sounding like none of them, Williams displayed a rhapsodically romantic flair for their sense of harmonic development. Although previous recordings of this 1945 suite exist in big-band jazz and symphonic-orchestra arrangements, this version (for solo pianist and piano trio) is the one to get. Armies of strings and horns curtail the bouncy sense of swing that is a Williams trademark.

Zoning is a later chapter in Williams's career. This 1974 recording presents her both in a trio setting (with bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Mickey Roker) and in duets with pianist Zita Carno. There's no overarching conceptual scheme here, just fine blues piano (with funk underpinnings and touches of avant-garde dissonance). Titles like "Praise the Lord" and "Holy Ghost" act as reminders of the pianist's spiritual dedication and her embrace of gospel piano stylings.

The most revolutionary selections on Zoning are the duets. "Zoning Fungus II" finds Williams and Carno trading phrases expanding conventional blues patterns. Their interplay prepares the way for the most captivating of these reissues, Embraced, a live recording on the Pablo label of Williams meeting Cecil Taylor in a 1977 concert.

To try to hold your ground while performing with Taylor is a little like trying to stand up to a tornado. Recorded examples are mixed. The Taylor sessions with Coltrane (now on Blue Note) reveal two giants ignoring each other. The duets with Max Roach are an uncannily sympathetic meshing, but what would you expect with a drummer of Roach's power and speed meeting a most percussive pianist?

Williams was not as percussive a keyboardist as Taylor -- or as loud, or jagged, or dissonant. She was an extraordinary revisionist of the jazz/blues heritage. This 80-minute disc finds the pair, occasionally with superfluous backing by bassist Cranshaw and drummer Roker, revisiting the entire history of African-American piano, from "The Lord Is Heavy (A Spiritual)" through "Good Ole Boogie" to "Basic Chords (Bop Changes on the Blues)." Taylor splashes cascading tone clusters and roars. Williams crafts eloquent blues filigrees around his tonal bursts. They meet. They diverge. Their common ground dissolves only to reform in a boogie-woogie extravaganza. A great meeting of great souls talking -- in different tongues at times -- yet preaching the same gospel.

-- Norman Weinstein