This boppin’ side showcases some strong jazz talent at the crossroads between swing and bebop. Fans of the channel know how much I admire Mary Lou Williams – and what a treat to hear her with the lively guitarist Mary Osborne at the beginning of her career and the talented Margie Hyams on vibes.
Mary Lou Williams is best known to early jazz fans for her role as a pianist and composer in Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy in Kansas City. When she finally left the Clouds in 1942, she briefly formed a small group in Pittsburgh that featured a young Art Blakey. The group played an engagement in New York before disbanding. In 1943 she moved to New York City – where she stayed for the rest of her life. There, she met and played with many artists who would go on to form the bebop vanguard such as Bud Powell, Miles Davis, and Fats Navarro.
In her book on women’s bands in America (which is fascinating—and which explores many intersectional aspects of this story—and which I will quote from quite a bit below), Jill Sullivan writes about “an exceptional moment in Mary Lou William’s career”:
“From 1945 to 1947, Williams went into the studio four times to record fifteen sides with an all-female combo, the Girl Stars… These Girl Stars recordings, along with surrounding documentation, serve as an extraordinarily rich source for understanding how emergent changes in jazz intersected with emergent changes in U.S. gender and race norms.”
“…these recordings, first, confirm Williams’ ability as a leader—as the primary creative presence in a jazz combo—in a variety of settings (trio, quartet, and quintet) during the first few years of her solo career. Second, they reveal Williams’ early bebop piano style and her versatility, as exemplified by her ready ability to switch back and forth among stride, boogie, and bebop.”
Guitarist Mary Osborne was just hitting her stride in the NYC jazz scene while vibraphonist Margie Hyams had just spent almost a year playing with Woody Herman. Bassist June Rotenberg was classically trained but had played with a USO band during the war and had sat in with Art Tatum uptown.
Recorded in New York, July 24, 1946.
Released as RCA Victor 20-2174
Credits:
Mary Lou Williams – piano
Mary Osborne – guitar
Margie Hyams – vibraphone
June Rotenberg – bass
Rose Gottesman – drums
Sources:
Women’s Bands in America : Performing Music and Gender by Jill M. Sullivan, Rowman & Littlefield, 2016
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