Mary Lou Williams: Night Life

Mary Lou Williams is probably the most important female African-American jazz pianist. Williams was also a fine songwriter and arranger and she worked with major figures in jazz including Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Williams was born Mary Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1910.

Williams played with Duke Ellington’s band, The Washingtonians, in 1925. By the late Twenties she was pianist in the Andy Kirk’s band, “The Twelve Clouds of Joy.” While with Kirk, Williams supplied the band with the songs, “Cloudy,” and “Little Joe from Chicago.” Williams made her first recordings with Kirk in 1929/30 and recorded the piano solo sides, “Drag ‘Em” and “Night Life.” These solo sides would see Williams become a national name and brought her to the attention of Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey who all hired her as an arranger.

Williams became involved in the bebop movement of the Forties and wound up as a mentor of sorts for the likes of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.

In the Sixties, Williams began recording religious jazz music, and she continued recording prolifically until her death in 1981.

Williams best recordings can be heard on the following albums: “Mary Lou Williams Trio” (1944), “Signs of the Zodiac” (1945), “Piano Solos” (1946), “Black Christ of the Andes” (1964), “Zoning” (1974), “Mary Lou’s Mass” (1975), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1927-1940” (1995), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1944-1945” (1998) and The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1945-1947” (1999).

Dizzy Gillespie: Salt Peanuts

The great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, was one of the musicians at the forefront of the development of be-bop music in the Fifties. Gillespie was born John Birkes Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker, “Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality and antics while performing.

After hearing the great Roy Eldridge on the radio as a child, Gillespie decide then and there that he, too, wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. Gillespie got his start in New York City, in 1935, playing in the bands of Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes. It was with the Teddy Hill Orchestra that Gillespie would make his first recording, “King Porter Stomp.” Gillespie stayed with Hill for one year and then freelanced with several bands for a while before finally winding up in Cab Callaway’s Orchestra in 1939. Calloway would fire Gillespie three years later following an altercation between the two men.

In 1943, Gillespie would join Earl Hines band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create a new music which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie Ekstine band, which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band because he wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.

In the mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was at these jams that bebop was born.

Gillespie would become a member of the “Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie would form his own Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.

Among the best of the classic sides that Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties are: “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca,” “Perdido,” and “Night and Day.”

Gillespie’s best albums begin with the Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at Massey Hall” is perhaps the best moment of many brilliant moments on that live recording of the Quintet’s only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include, “Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960), “Groovin’ High” (1953).

After Gillespie had had his fill of bebop, he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie died in 1993.

Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers

Drummer Art Blakey and his band, The Jazz Messengers, are the pioneers of a jazz sub-genre called “hard bop”. Hard bop takes the fundamentals of be-bop and adds elements of rhythm and blues. The idea behind hard bop was to make be-bop music more danceable and perhaps, more palatable to mainstream music fans.

Art Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919, and by the Fifties, his virtuosic and incessant drumming would put him at the forefront of the be-bop genre along with Dizzy Gilliespie, Thelonious Monk and others.

In 1954, he formed the band, The Jazz Messengers, which became a training ground for up and coming young jazz musicians. New Orleans trumpet prodigy Wynton Marsalis would get his professional start as a member of the band. Among the best of the Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers albums are “A Night at Birdland” (Volumes 1-3) (1954), “The Jazz Messengers” (1956), “A Night in Tunisia” (1957), “Drum Suite” (1957), “Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk” (1958), “Ritual” (1959), “Moanin’”(1959),  “The Big Beat” (1960),  “Mosaic” (1961) “Free for All,” “A Night in Tunisia” (1961), and “Indestructible” (1965).

Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers

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Drummer Art Blakey and his band, The Jazz Messengers, are the pioneers of a jazz sub-genre called “hard bop”. Hard bop takes the fundamentals of be-bop and adds elements of rhythm and blues. The idea behind hard bop was to make be-bop music more danceable and perhaps, more palatable to mainstream music fans.

Art Blakey was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1919, and by the Fifties, his virtuosic and incessant drumming would put him at the forefront of the be-bop genre along with Dizzy Gilliespie, Thelonious Monk and others.

In 1954, he formed the band, The Jazz Messengers, which became a training ground for up and coming young jazz musicians. New Orleans trumpet prodigy Wynton Marsalis would get his professional start as a member of the band. Among the best of the Art Blakey and The Jazz Messengers albums are “A Night at Birdland” (Volumes 1-3) (1954), “The Jazz Messengers” (1956), “A Night in Tunisia” (1957), “Drum Suite” (1957), “ArtBlakey’s Jazz Messengers with Thelonious Monk” (1958), “Ritual” (1959), “Moanin’”(1959),  “The Big Beat” (1960),  “Mosaic” (1961) “Free for All,” “A Night in Tunisia” (1961), and “Indestructible” (1965).

Charlie Parker Ornithology

Saxophonist Charlie Parker is considered by many to be the best musician in the history of jazz. He is one of the few jazz musicians who could rival the technical brilliance and originality of Louis Armstrong and Art Tatum. Parker’s drug-addicted life and early demise is jazz legend and a tragic example which would be repeated by several jazz musicians who followed him.

Parker was nicknamed “Yardbird” which was eventually shortened to simply, “Bird.” Many of his compositions, including “Yardbrid Suite” and “Ornithology” would be inspired by that nickname.

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1920. He began to play the saxophone at age 11, and had joined a musician’s union instead of attending high school. He practiced diligently in the late Thirties, and by 1938, he was good enough to join the band of pianist Jay McShann. While in his teens, Parker had become addicted to morphine after being administered the drug in hospital after a car accident. His morphine addiction would lead to a heroin addiction which would contribute to his early death at age 34.

Parker quit the McShann band in 1939, and headed to New York City to begin a solo career. In the early Forties, Parker was experimenting with soloing methods. His experimentation constituted some of the early developments of be-bop music, a subgenre of jazz with which he would forever be linked. He would soon be collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, and others. In summer 1945, Parker and his friends recorded “Ko-ko” and other sides at a session for the Savoy label. That session and its recordings would become a watershed moment for bebop music.

By this time, Charlie Parker’s heroin addiction was causing him to miss gigs, and he resorted to busking on New York City streets to support his addiction. Parker then moved to Los Angeles where heroin was difficult to find, and he began to drink heavily to compensate. He was often in bad shape at recording sessions and needed, at times, to be physically supported by others. Parker moved back to New York City where he died, in 1955.

The best original albums and collections of Charlie Parker’s music include, “Charlie Parker with Strings” (1950), “Charlie Parker with Strings Vol.2” (1950), “Charlie Parker” (1953), “Big Band” (1954), “Summit Meeting at Birdland” (1977), “At Storyville” (1985), “The Genius of Charlie Parker” (1954), “The Charlie Parker Story” (1956), “The Genius of Charlie Parker” (1957), “Anthology” (1974), “Charlie Parker on Dial” (1974), “Bird/The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes)” (1974), “The Very Best of Bird” (1977), “The Complete Studio Savoy Recordings” (1978), “Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve” (1988), “Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker” (1988), “Masterworks 1946-47” (1990),”Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Collection” (1997), “The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings 1944-1948” (2000), “The Essential Charlie Parker” (2004).

Bird

Dizzy Gillespie Albums and Classic Sides

The great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, was one of the musicians at the forefront of the development of be-bop music in the Fifties. He was born John Birkes Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker, “Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality and antics while performing.

 After hearing the great Roy Eldridge on the radio as a child, Gillespie decide then and there that he, too, wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. Gillespie got his start in New York City, in 1935, playing in the bands of Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes. It was with the Teddy Hill Orchestra that Gillespie would make his first recording, “King Porter Stomp.” Gillespie stayed with Hill for one year and then freelanced with several bands for a while before finally winding up in Cab Callaway’s Orchestra in 1939. Calloway would fire Gillespie three years later following an altercation between the two men.

In 1943, Gillespie would join Earl Hines band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create a new music which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie Ekstine band, which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band because he wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.

In the mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was at these jams that bebop was born.

Gillespie would become a member of the “Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie would form his own Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.

Among the best of the classic sides that Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties are: “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca,” “Perdido,” and “Night and Day.”

Gillespie’s best albums begin with the Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at Massey Hall” is perhaps the best moment of many brilliant moments on that live recording of the Quintet’s only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include, “Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960), “Groovin’ High” (1953).

After Gillespie had had his fill of bebop, he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie died in 1993.