Adam Fairhall & Johnny Hunter

The 21^st Century’s roaring Twenties seems to have reawakened interest in the music of Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981), whose career stretched from composing and arranging for Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy in the late 1920s, trading ideas with Beboppers like Thelonious Monk in the 1940s and 1950s to a duet concert with Cecil Taylor in the late 1970s. Willams oeuvre encompassed many styles, slices of which two UK improvisers incorporate in their interpretations of 10 of her tunes.

Drummer Johnny Hunter has played with the likes of Mick Beck and Olice Brice, while pianist Adam Fairhall, works in Nat Birchall’s band, with his solo styling ranging from Ragtime to Free Jazz. These chameleon-like qualities are conspicuous on Play Mary Lou Williams. For no matter what stage of Williams’ career the tunes come from the duo’s interpretations add another dimension.

This is obvious as early as track one. “Roll ‘Em” is classic Kansas City blues. But while the tune begins with pile-driver keyboard pressure and percussion shuffles it soon fragments into restrained drum clanks and clatters and reflective piano stops and starts before evolving into a Jerry Lee Lewis-style rockabilly keyboard rave, slides down to Hunter’s narrow tap-dance-like rim emphasis and lifts into an adagio piano tour de force.

These modifications continue throughout. “Fandangle” for instance blends raggy swing with emphasized accents until the pianist’s asides and drum nerve beats move it into a moderated exposition only to revert back to near Hot Jazz at the end. The slides and scuffles that intersect with percussion sizzles on “Mary Lou Blues” subvert the standard Blues form, so that ringing honky-tonk emphasis gives way to slow drags which ascend in pitch and tempo as the piece evolves. Exploring a counter theme for while, the duo then replicates the speed of the initial exposition.

With such pivots as matching percussion rat tat tats and modernist piano key substitutions worked into the mix, the most telling tracks are two versions of “Lady Be Good”. The first begins with what sounds like a Monk head before revealing the melody that soon melts into variation of both Monk and Gershwin. It’s simultaneously Swing and Bop. The lengthier version of the same tune slinks along at such a slow pace that over drum rattles every piano note and its extensions is isolated and examined until the melody finally peeks through.

This way the CD stands as both a testament to Willaims’s enduring music and the skill of the two players.

–Ken Waxman

Track Listing:  1. Roll ‘Em 2. Night Life 3. Gemini 4. Nicole 5. Mary Lou Blues 6. Lady Be Good 7. Dirge 8. Fandangle 9. A Fungus Amungus 10. Lady Be Good (reprise)

Personnel: Adam Fairhall (piano) and Johnny Hunter (snare drum)