Pierre-antoine Badaroux

Umlaut Chamber Orchestra: Zodiac Suite – Mary Lou Williams

by John Eyles
November 10, 2023

From 1942 until 1945, pianist Mary Lou William (1910-1981) wrote “Zodiac Suite," a twelve part composition in which each movement was named after a sign of the zodiac and was also dedicated to one or more renowned jazz musician born under that sign; for example, “Aries" was for Ben Webster and Billie Holiday, while “Libra" was for Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. In total the entire suite ran for about forty minutes. Although it was initially ...