Mary Lou Williams - The Zodiac Suite
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CD Details
Artist: Mary Lou WilliamsBrand: Smithsonian Folkways Recordings
Edition: Music CD
Format: CD
CD Release Date: 1995-10-17
Model: SFW40810
Music Label: Smithsonian Folkways
Soundtracks:
- Aries
- Taurus
- Gemini
- Cancer
- Leo
- Virgo
- Libra
- Scorpio
- Sagittarius
- Capricorn
- Aquarius
- Pisces
- Aries
- Cancer
- Virgo
- Scorpio
- Aquarius
Music reviews of The Zodiac Suite
Music Review: Pisces waltzes in a dream...
Rating: 5 Stars
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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Description of The Zodiac Suite
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." - DownBeatWith 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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