Zodiac Suite: Revisited
Mary Records was formed by Mary Lou Williams, the brilliant pianist and composer, in 1964. She established the company to record herself and her own music, and issued three major projects within a ten-year period. The Mary Lou Williams Foundation has revived Mary Records, 30 years later, to continue the Williams recorded legacy. Geri Allen, brilliant pianist and composer of today, has joined forces with Fr. Peter F. O'Brien, S.J., the Executive Director of The Mary Lou Williams Foundation, in forming The Mary Lou Williams Collective. Allen serves, and will continue to serve, as Musical Director of the Collective, with O'Brien as Producer. The Collective will issue new recordings of the music of Mary Lou Williams. Recording Project Vol. One presents Williams's first extended composition "Zodiac Suite." Williams composed and recorded the full work in 1945. Now Allen, with her fellow musicians, revisits this suite. The composition is preserved, but these artists bring their full improvisational and performing abilities to it. he result is a living and fresh realization of a classic work from the history of jazz. Now, 60 years later, we have a second (and contemporary) incarnation of this complete extended composition. The members of The Mary Lou Williams Collective include: Geri Allen, pianist and musical director; Buster Williams, bass; Billy Hart, drums; Andrew Cyrille, drums. Heard also: Williams's 1973 composition "Intermission"; Herbie Nichol's "The Bebop Waltz" and Allen's tender new ballad, written in honor of Williams, "Thank You Madam." Recording Project Volume Two has already been completed and will be issued one year from now. This will present these same four musicians plus the singers Andy Bey and Honi Gordon.