B. Goren. Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 According to the jazzmataz, on Feb 22 the Smithsonian will release anothe MLW recording from the 60's. Anybody familiar with this session? Worth picking it up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 This should be "Mary Lou's Mass" and about nine additional tracks. It's a sacred work, it's very nice, depends on your inclination towards this type of thing. . . . I really like the original lp and am looking forward to this reissue! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS RECORDINGS: FIRST TIME ON CD FOR 'MARY LOU'S MASS' BY MARY LOU WILLIAMS WITH 7 RARE BONUS TRACKS ALBUM OUT FEBRUARY 22, INCLUDES TRIBUTES TO MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. "MUSIC FOR THE SOUL" - MARY LOU WILLIAMS On February 22, Smithsonian Folkways Recordings will reissue Mary Lou Williams' 'Mary Lou's Mass' for the first time on CD. The remastered album includes bonus material from her 1969 masterpiece 'Music For Peace' (the third of her four masses), two hymns written in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the time of his assassination, and rare singles from 1972. Williams, a pivotal figure in jazz history, is best known as a member of Andy Kirk's orchestra and as a writer and arranger for Duke Ellington, Dizzie Gillespie, and other legends. 'Mary Lou's Mass' - gospel tinged, innovative, dynamic, sometimes funky, and always profoundly stirring - is, as Williams herself put it, "music for the soul." The album presents a riveting suite by an artist trying to reconcile her religious and African-American cultural identities with strikingly original and daring music. Tammy Kernodle, a professor of American music and Williams biographer, writes in the extensive liner notes, "Mary wanted this mass to address the contemporary social problems of the Vietnam War, racism, and the overwhelming lack of compassion that many displayed. She drew heavily from biblical scripture and extemporized the traditional texts so that they reflected a contemporary context." One of jazz's foremost pianists, Williams traveled to Europe in the early 1950s. In 1954, she walked off the stage of a Parisian nightclub, suffering from a spiritual crisis that led to her New York confirmation in the Catholic Church. She soon had a radical idea to fuse jazz with liturgical music. In 1968, struck by the assassination of Dr. King, she wrote the hymn"Tell Him Not to Talk Too Long" and "I Have a Dream," both of which were broadcast live on Vatican radio and are included here. Completed in mid-1969 from a papal commission, 'Mass for Peace' debuted in New York in memory of assassinated Kenyan leader Tom Mboya. Williams and famous choreographer Alvin Ailey later revamped the music, adding additional compositions and reworking others for a new production of his dance company. The new work was called 'Mary Lou's Mass' and was released on Folkways' subsidiary Mary Records in 1970. Produced in conjunction with the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, 'Mary Lou's Mass' is the fourth Mary Lou Williams album to be lovingly reissued by Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, joining 'Mary Lou Williams Presents Black Christ of the Andes,' 'Zodiac Suite,' and 'Zoning.' In a review of 'Black Christ of the Andes,' NPR's Kevin Whitehead noted, "For her, playing and praying and good works were inextricably linked. Her diverse musical activities don't sound like postmodern-style shopping, but like the emanations of one complex personality. She did it all and did it blessedly well." In The New York Times, Ben Ratliff praised that album's writing and arranging as "dryly intelligent to the bone." For more information, please contact Alexis Tedford [atedford@shorefire.com or Matt Hanks [mhanks@shorefire.com at Shore Fire Media: 718-522-7171. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Sounds like one to get asap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Preorder whilest thou still mayest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 It have done been did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 And so it was written! Mary Lou was pleased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Do all her albums have instrumentals as good as the ones on Black Christ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Do all her albums have instrumentals as good as the ones on Black Christ? Dude, Mary Lou was a HEAVYWEIGHT. Player, composer, arranger, spiritual leader (in both sacred andsectarian ways), you name it, the lady was BAAAAAD. Hope that answers your question. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noj Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 Yessir. B-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 11, 2005 Report Share Posted February 11, 2005 And don't play cards with the woman! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B. Goren. Posted February 12, 2005 Author Report Share Posted February 12, 2005 Thank you Lon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alankin Posted February 12, 2005 Report Share Posted February 12, 2005 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 Man oh man, this is right up there with the Ayler box and the Hill Select as quality reissues of the last months. Wonderful sound on this. And DEPTH to the music. Deceivingly so on some selections. Singing by a number of artful pipes including Leon Thomas, Honi Gordon, Milt Grayson, and Eileen Gilbert. Very interesting different bassists. Jack Parker doing all the right things on the skins and brass discs. Mary Lou's incredible piano, so resonant and RESOLUTE. Even two selections of the lady on ORGAN recorded in Rome. I'm so happy this is out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 Who'd you order from, Lon? I did the CDU thing and it's shipped but has not arrived yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stefan Wood Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 I'm going over to the Smithsonian at lunch and buy a copy....... at a discount! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 CDU. . . got it last night. Yours will arrive today. . . I can feel it coming on! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 BUT I'M DOING A ROAD GIG TODAY DAMMIT!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted February 25, 2005 Report Share Posted February 25, 2005 OUCH. Sorry to hear that. Or not. It will be sweet to hear when you return! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 26, 2005 Report Share Posted February 26, 2005 It is indeed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted February 28, 2005 Report Share Posted February 28, 2005 Had the weekend to digest this, and, for me, this doesn't hold up from start to finish quite as well as BLACK CHRIST OF THE ANDES. Too many little snippetts that no doubt worked well in performance of the Mass as a whole, but, divorced from the performance context, they leave me with an "over before it could begin" feeling. Also, the annotation occasionally seems a little off (I DO hear yodelling on "It Is Always Spring", but I DON'T think that it's by Leon Thomas), and I'm a little bummed that the producers decided to excise the lead vocal from that same cut (which I'm wondering maybe was where Thomas was actually heard?). This is the Smithsonian, after all, no? BUT... There's still plenty of great music on here, much of it quite "modern", and, to my ears, remarkable (an overused adjective when it comes to Williams' ongoing evolution, but an apt one nevertheless. Plus, the talents of Carline Ray & Roger Glenn, names I had previously known as only "names" (but from where?), provide much enjoyment and surprises. What a deep talent MAry Lou was! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jazzbo Posted March 1, 2005 Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 Well, those little snippets were designed for actual performance points in a mass, so yeah, they don't hold up as well as part of a cohesive concert experience. I dig them though. Hmmm. . . I thought it WAS Leon yodeling. Will have to relisten with an ear to possibilities later on. . . . What grabbed and thrilled me about this release is how it has captured the SOUND that MLW creates from the piano so well. Mary was a master of all the elements of the piano, but I'm fascinated with the individual sound that pianists can conjure up, and I love to hear MLW's when I can (wish I had been able to hear her live!) This recording has moments when even with a chorus and a flute or french horn and an electric bass and drums going you can hear her notes ring out distinctively, and you can feel the resonance she gets out of the body of the piano. Wonderful! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSngry Posted March 1, 2005 Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 I duuno, sounds like a female voice yodelling. Maybe I wasn't listening right. Now, WHO is/was Roger Glenn? (another peeve about the booklet, not enough/any info on the supporting cast). I probably sound like I'm disappointed somewhat in this disc, but I'm not, no way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brandon Burke Posted March 1, 2005 Report Share Posted March 1, 2005 What grabbed and thrilled me about this release is how it has captured the SOUND that MLW creates from the piano so well. Mary was a master of all the elements of the piano, but I'm fascinated with the individual sound that pianists can conjure up, and I love to hear MLW's when I can (wish I had been able to hear her live!) This recording has moments when even with a chorus and a flute or french horn and an electric bass and drums going you can hear her notes ring out distinctively, and you can feel the resonance she gets out of the body of the piano. Wonderful! This is something I have always enjoyed about Mary as well. In fact, I want to say we've had this conversation before, Lon. I don't, however, tend to associate those ressonances with Mary Lou's Mass. But then again it's never been one of my favorites. Obviosuly, I need to hear it again. It's been a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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