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shout | The music of Mary Lou Williams

Sunday, March 4 at 7 pm

Featuring the Luckman Jazz Orchestra,Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers, vocalists Cedric Berry and Carmen Lundy

Get groovin’. Last time the Los Angeles Master Chorale teamed with the superb Luckman Jazz Orchestra, we played a set of music by the pioneering jazz great Mary Lou Williams. It left everybody eager for more. “What a winner it was, as attested by an enthusiastic, capacity audience.” — L.A. Jazz Scene

This time, we’re giving Mary Lou Williams a one-woman show. With the renowned Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers and two incredible guest vocalists, it’s going to be a rockin’ good time and fun for all.

Born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, the youngster known as “The Little Piano Girl” was blessed with perfect pitch. By the time she was 16 and living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Williams was sitting in with the country’s most popular big bands as they passed through town. Composer, arranger, pianist, singer and bandleader — from swing to bop, gospel, spirituals and blues to avant-garde jazz — her life is a history of jazz.

Just as Williams did, we’re using her mass as a framework for a free-form celebration of her sacred works as well as a wide-ranging exploration of her solos, choruses and big band sounds. Get down with rhythms and blues. Leap to your feet for gospel. Shout! We’ll rattle the rafters and keep Disney Hall’s famous acoustics jumping.

Testify to this: Mary Lou Williams is the greatest female composer and instrumentalist in jazz history and one of the most brilliant creative minds in American music. Amen!

Download a guide to the season: chorale-seasonguide0607.pdf, 1.1MB