Mary Lou and Boogie Woogie Too

by Jessica Kennedy



“A fast, rolling bass, giving the piece an undercurrent of tremendous power."


These were the words said by African American historian E. Simms Cambell to describe the pulse and flow of boogie woogie music. Its soulful groove, full of chromatic runs, trills, and grace notes still thrills and makes bodies sway and feet tap. It’s been around since the dawn of jazz music, made popular and well loved by artists like Mary Lou Williams, and is ultimately swinging around people’s ears to this day. Who knew that it all started in shabbily fabricated barrelhouses?

Before boogie woogie music was branded into music history, strands of its elements started out as “barrelhouse piano.” This type of music sounded like rowdy, inebriated piano music, like you’d hear at a boisterous saloon. It was most often sung and played by turpentine workers, who were classified as nasty-tempered people who knew how to beat out good music while doing intense physical labor. A lot of the feel and texture to this type of music was inspired by the roaring locomotives that would thunder through the turpentine and lumber camps.

It was not until musician George Thomas reprinted and published “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” in 1916 that the term “boogie woogie” became well known and well loved in America. From then on out, boogie woogie became commonly recognized by multiple different names and in various other music types, such as stride, swing, jazz, and rockabilly. No matter where it is found, boogie woogie music always has a rumbling bass line with bouncing and pulsing treble line at rapid or lackadaisical tempos.

Mary Lou Williams was an avid music prodigy, and has been described as “an important swing pianist, with a lightly rocking, legato manner based on subtly varied stride and boogie-woogie bass patterns.” Through her manipulation and personal twists of boogie woogie music along with other jazz genres, Williams has become one of the most significant female influences in American jazz. Her jazzy touches were even brought into the Catholic Church, where she composed multiple spirituals with a slight boogie woogie feel to them. She composed various blues/boogie woogie pieces for other musicians like Andy Kirk and Duke Ellington. All in all, Williams had touched jazz and boogie woogie music like no other composer had, and her influence still echoes today, especially through modern jazz groups, such as the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra. Through these bands and America’s memories of exceptional jazz, Williams’ music will last forever.







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrLVBFjvwcI     - Mary Lou Williams performing "Hesitation Boogie"

References:

http://www.bowofo.org/

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-20715647.html

http://nonjohn.com/History%20of%20Boogie%20Woogie.htm

http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_williams_mary_lou.htm

Mary Lou Williams Biography

Mary Lou williams (1910-1981), often called The First Lady of Jazz, was a pioneering pianist, composer, and arranger whose creative genius spanned five decades and many styles from Swing to Bebop to post bop styles.  She became a devout Roman Catholic in 1957 and offered her music "as a prayer for others."  As an African American woman composer, her career is remarkable in that she rose to prominence in the era before Civil Rights and Women's Rights, when successful female jazz musicians were rare.
During the 20's and 30's Williams wrote for and performed with Andy Kirk's band, Twelve Clouds of Joy, and composed and arranged for leading orchestral conductors of the Swing Era, including Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman.  Later compositions were recorded by Dizzy Gillespie, and her extended composition, The Zodiac Suite, was premiered in Carnegie Hall.  Turning to Catholicism, she began to compose sacred music, including three masses, that most famous being Mary Lou's Mass, which was performed at the Vatican.
In the final years of her life, Williams was artist-in-residence at Duke University, where she continued her life-long commitment to teaching young musicians.  Her legacy continues through the work of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture at Duke University, and the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival held annually at the Kennedy Center.