Customer Reviews

Zodiac Suite Town Hall 1945

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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

I think there's 2 Suites; 2 separate CDs, with different cuts, that Amazon has conflated as one: this one, recorded in 1945 @ Town Hall with an orchestra (there's nothing to listen to) which was reputed to be stolen for 50 years and was put out (according to the Product Details) by Jazz Classics...

and then the other one, which, according to the Product 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..."

The covers are different, and the titles, too; with the orchestra it's entitled:

"Town Hall '45: The Zodiac Suite by Mary Lou Williams", featuring Ben Webster (CD, Vintage Jazz Classics)

It can be found here:
[...]

("featuring Ben Webster" appears on the album cover of this one)

The trio alone, The Smithsonian Folkways version, is simply titled "The Zodiac Suite"

Here's where it can be found: The Zodiac Suite

I've listened to the trio version and it's superb; the other one (this one?) featuring Ben Webster and the orchestra I haven't heard and can't judge, but since I couldn't leave this review online without a rank I gave it 5 stars because it's Mary Lou Williams after all and the other version really is superb; this one probably is too... unless the tapes were degraded.

Anybody know more about this??????????

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.