Mary Lou Williams “Mary Lou Williams in London”

Even though this is an inexpensive reissue on the GNP Crescendo label, it’s a fine vinyl record that sounds fantastic even on my budget stereo. The cover is a haunting, old, tinted, 7” x 7” portrait (it could be larger, but I guess it’s intense enough as it is) of the artist in question. By 1974, jazz piano phenom Mary Lou Williams had released tons (not by weight, but that, too) of records—to make a complete discography of her records, including everything’s she’s played on, written, arranged, etc., that’s someone’s life’s work. Collecting them all is someone else’s (could be crossover) life’s work. Of course, nothing even compared to being Mary Lou Williams. Liner notes are by Dave Dexter, Jr., which serves as a brief bio. She was born in 1910, was a child prodigy on piano, and she played with everyone. If I had some kind of music streaming service, I could presumably listen to an overview of her recorded music—but for me, that’s not how I like to enjoy music. I do wish that more, older, jazz records were affordable. I also miss the days when you’d go over to some friend’s place—who was a record collector—and she’d get excited about playing you selected records by some artist you knew very little about. That’s the way to listen to music. She might say, how about Mary Lou Williams? —and start breaking them out. If you know someone like that, consider yourself very lucky! In the meantime, I’ll keep an eye out for more of these cheapo discs (and I say that lovingly—I mean affordable to mere mortals)—because records like this, I can keep near the hi-fi and put on any time, and I do.

On this record we have swinging, up-tempo versions of familiar standards interpreted by Mary Lou Williams—with Ken Napper, Allan Ganley and Tony Scott—that’s from the back cover album credits—might not be complete—as this is a compilation. Besides bass and drums, the accompaniment includes bongos—quite nice on these recordings. A few of these songs I’m not familiar with, including a couple of Mary Lou Williams compositions—which are heavy with the percussion (bongos, I guess) and among my favorites here.  I can happily report that each of the twelve songs is a standout, and therefore, I’m not listing them all, or picking favorites! I like this piano jazz style as much as anything—the arrangements are minimal, and I can hear the separation. The piano is not minimal, a lot of notes, perfect sounding to me. I don’t have the vocabulary, or jazz vocabulary, to talk about her style. I am such a song-oriented listener, with popular music, anyway—I don’t normally focus on technique, virtuosity, or style—not that I don’t like to be amazed. Okay, I lied, my favorite here is “Don’t Blame Me” (not the Taylor Swift song!) —it’s one I know pretty well, though I can’t remember whose version. (It was only covered hundreds of times.) It’s a Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh song—and I know a Thelonious Monk version that I love. It’s a little slower in tempo than the rest, here, very nice. And, okay, one more—in particular, her piano on “For You” (Al Dubin/Joe Burke) is quite striking—it’s doing something to me. For me. To me. For me.

7.11.25