Results for "Mary Lou Williams"

The Touch of Your Lips, Part 2: Touch and Tone Color in Jazz Piano

by Kurt Ellenberger
April 16, 2020

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As mentioned in Part 1, tone color took on a prominent role in classical music in the 19C. The Romantic composers like Wagner, Strauss, Berlioz, Chopin and many others were, I think it is fair to say, somewhat obsessed with it. The composers before them were ...

I Sing Just to Know I'm Alive - Happy Birthday to Nina Simone

by Mary Foster Conklin
March 2, 2020

This week we focus on new releases from pianist Jen Allen, vocalists Rosemary Loar, Simone Kopmajer, Casey Abrams and Ian Shaw, plus birthday shout outs to Nina Simone in the first hour (who also has a new single out), flutists Nicole Mitchell and Mayu Saeki, vocalists Nancy Wilson, Anne Phillips, Kellye Gray and Shirley Crabbe, violinist ...

I Gotta Swing - Celebrating Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys

by Mary Foster Conklin
February 24, 2020

This week's broadcast includes new releases from Danish sax/flute/clarinetist Sarah Elgeti, flutist Elsa Nilsson, vocalists Lizzie Thomas and Chanda Rule, pianists Lynne Arriale and Carla Bley plus the Kenny Barron / Dave Holland Trio with birthday shout outs to Blanche Calloway (sister of Cab Calloway, pictured), Dena DeRose, Sharel Cassity, Marsha Heydt, Kenny Rankin and Melissa ...

You Can Never Be Too Magical - Celebrating Esperanza Spalding

by Mary Foster Conklin
February 10, 2020

This week we feature new releases from vocalists Kat Edmonson, Tamuz Nissim, Maria Schafer and JD Walter with birthday shout outs to pianists Lil Armstrong, Marc Cary and Jutta Hipp, bassist Katie Thiroux, trumpeter Jeannie Tanner, and vocalist Ed Reed, among others. In the first hour, a celebration of Esperanza Spalding's latest Grammy win for Jazz ...

Mary Lou Williams

Born: May 8, 1910

Imagine a pianist playing concerts with Benny Goodman and Cecil Taylor in successive years (1977-78). That pianist was Mary Lou Williams. In a career which spanned over fifty years Mary was always on the cutting edge.

She was born Mary Scruggs in 1910 Atlanta. Her mother was a single parent who worked as a domestic and played spirituals and ragtime on piano and organ. At age three Mary shocked her by reaching up from her mother's lap to pick out a tune on the keyboard. Rather than hiring a teacher (for fear the child would lose the ability to improvise) Mary's mother invited professional musicians to their home

No Ordinary Love - Celebrating Jazz Aquarians Barbara Carroll, Etta James and Sade Adu

by Mary Foster Conklin
February 3, 2020

This week our playlist includes new releases by pianists Yelena Eckemoff and Marina Albero, trumpetist Gabriel Mark Hasselbach, and trombonist Audrey Ochoa, plus birthday shout outs to Etta James, Barbara Carroll, Sade, Mariah Parker, Adi Meyerson, Kate McGarry, Lizz Wright, Peter Eldridge, Cheryl Bentyne and Chelsea McBride, among others. Also a nod to Mary Lou Williams, ...

The Very Singular Mr. Ran Blake

by Duncan Heining
January 23, 2020

There have been few American composers and musicians, with the ability to encapsulate their country's music in all its racial and ethnic complexity. We might perhaps point to Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Charles Ives and perhaps, in their own distaff ways, Harry Partch and Steve Reich. In jazz, their number is fewer still--Duke Ellington and George ...

Monterey Jazz Festival 2019

by Josef Woodard
October 6, 2019

Monterey Jazz Festival Monterey County Fairgrounds Monterey, CA September 27-19, 2019 It sometimes happens at the historic Monterey Jazz festival that the “main" and most memorable takeaways of a program occur away from the main arena stage. And so it went at the 62nd annual festival in September--at least to these ...

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival

by C. Andrew Hovan
July 4, 2019

2019 Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Pittsburgh, PA June 20-23, 2019 Now in its ninth year, the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival continues to grow and prosper as one of the country's best jazz festivals. Tied to the efforts of the city's August Wilson African American Cultural Center, the festival continues to prosper under ...

Rick Lawn: The Evolution of Big Band Sounds in America

by Victor L. Schermer
July 2, 2019

From the latter part of the Jazz Age through the Swing Era, big bands dominated the jazz scene and a large part of the entertainment industry. After World War II, their fortunes declined, but their music soared to new heights, spurred on by innovative leaders, instrumentalists, and very importantly, the composers/arrangers who worked behind the scenes ...