CDs of previously unissued live performances by pianists Mary Lou Williams and George Cables are set for March 4th release by HighNote Records.
Williams (pictured), considered by many to be the most important female jazz instrumentalist, composer and bandleader during the first 50 years of the music’s development, is heard in a trio performances at the Statler Hotel in Buffalo during the winter of 1970 with bassist Ronnie Boykins and drummer Roy Haynes. A Grand Night for Swinging is the only known recording of Williams and Haynes playing together and includes performances of “I Can’t Get Started,” “My Funny Valentine,” “St. Louis Blues” and “Caravan,” among other songs, as well as an interview with the pianist.
Morning Song presents Cables-who performed and/or recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Art Pepper, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Tony Williams, Freddie Hubbard and others, and accompanied Dexter Gordon after his historic homecoming from Europe from 1976 to 1978, before embarking on a solo career-in a 1980 performance at San Francisco’s Keystone Korner. The pianist leads a quartet featuring trumpeter Eddie Henderson, bassist John Heard and drummer Sherman Ferguson performing “Polka Dots and Moonbeams,” “I Remember Clifford,” “Who Can I Turn To” and “On Green Dolphin Street,” among other songs.
