Mary Lou Williams - Virgo (Zodiac Suite)

Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. She is often called jazz's greatest female musician as she wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions).

Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.

Her career spanned over a half-century, and she created music full of everlasting beauty, inspiration and surprise. Her achievements as a composer, arranger, and bandleader earned her respect of the highest level from her peers.

Mary Lou passed away in 1981 at the age of 71, leaving behind a pioneering legacy of jazz.

With just a casual interest in astrology, Mary Lou Williams created her 1945 Zodiac Suite as a series of character sketches, musical portraits of friends from each sign that she would debut on a weekly radio show.

"Aries" is for Ben Webster and Billie Holiday, "Taurus" for Duke Ellington, and "Libra" for Dizzy Gillespie, Art Tatum, Bud Powell, and Thelonious Monk.

The pieces include piano solos, duets with bassist Al Lucas, and trios with the addition of drummer Jack "The Bear" Parker. The suite is both a remarkable exercise in extended composition and an index of Williams's varied palette.