Mary Lou Williams – Nite Life (Chiaroscuro, 1998)

Mary Lou Williams (p)

Recorded in May and October 1971

The first eleven cuts on Nite Life were originally issued as From the Heart (Chiaroscuro, 1971).

In the late-1920s, Mary Lou Williams began her career as a pianist, composer, and arranger.  She worked regularly with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Andy Kirk, Earl Hines, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington.  Ellington famously raved about Williams, saying that she is "perpetually contemporary.  Her writing and performing have always been a little bit ahead ... Her music retains -- and maintains -- a standard of quality that is timeless.  She is soul on soul." 

In the early-1950s, Williams experienced a spiritual crisis and abruptly pulled away from the jazz world.  In 1956, she converted to Roman Catholicism.  In the following years, Williams would occasionally perform, but rather than focusing on jazz, she spent most of her time composing religious music, as well as organizing The Bel Canto Foundation, a group dedicated to helping others with drug and alcohol addiction problems.

By the early-1970s, with the assistance and encouragement of Peter F. O'Brien, S.J., a close personal friend who also happened to be a Jesuit priest, Williams resumed her jazz career.  As O'Brien writes in the liner notes to Nite Life, "I was convinced that Mary Lou ought to be playing and appearing all the time.  She said she would go back out there if I went along with her.  She asked me to be her Personal Manager.  I knew nothing of what that really meant, but she taught me well.  Later, in the fall of 1970, Mary Lou went into Barney Josephson's The Cookery in Greenwich Village, and remained there well into the very late spring.  I went on the road with Mary Lou for the first time in May of 1971... Shortly after that, the music on these 2 CDs was recorded in New York."

The long engagement at The Cookery and the subsequent release of From the Heart were important first steps in propelling Williams back into prominence.  Her career experienced a dramatic rebound during the 1970s.  Williams had many opportunities to record and perform on stages around the world, and she made some of the most powerful music of her entire career.

I chose Nite Life for inclusion in this survey because the music is so intensely humane, intimate, and personal.  I may be reading into it, but I hear a musician who has something to prove -- both to herself and to the listeners.  There is absolutely no nonsense here.  Every composition, every piece, every note is forceful, concentrated, focused. 

More Mary Lou Williams
All of Williams' recordings are worth hearing, but there are two others that are extra special:

• Zoning (Mary, 1974); reissued on Smithsonian/Folkways

• Free Spirits (SteepleChase, 1976)

If you like Nite Life, you shouldn't hesitate to hear these as well.  ... I think all three -- Nite Life, Zoning, and Free Spirits -- are among the finest jazz records made during the 1970s.