Mary Records was the company Mary Lou Williams formed in 1964 to release her own self-produced album "Black Christ of the Andes". I remember Mary saying at the time that "no one would record me. So I decided to record myself." This was not the first record company owned and controlled by an African American musical artist. There had been Dizzy Gillespie with DeeGee and, importantly, Charles Mingus with Debut. Mary Lou Williams also released "Music for Peace" (later "Mary Lou's Mass") and "Zoning", as well as four 45rpm recordings on Mary Records. Activity on the label, however, ceased by 1975. Now we have revived Mary Records to continue the project begun more that forty years ago.


The Mary Lou Williams Collective

The Mary Lou Williams Collective, an arm of The Mary Lou Williams Foundation, Inc., is devoted to the recording, and performance, of the music of Mary Lou Williams. It is involved in presenting fresh approaches to her own works which she herself recorded in her lifetime. It is also intent on recording her compositions which have never before been heard on disc. The musicians who make up the Collective will vary from project to project except for Geri Allen, its musical director, who will remain a constant. Recording project #2 is already complete and will, when released in 2006-2008, present the same four musicians heard on this CD (Zodiac Suite: Revisited) plus the highly creative singer Andy Bey. A third planned recording will present The Complete Sacred Works of Mary Lou Wiiliams in 2010 in honor of the centenary of her birth.


Selected Discography of Mary Lou Williams:
. Solo Recital (Montreux Jazz Fest., 1978. Pablo)
. My Mama Pinned a Rose on Me (Pablo)
. Zoning (Smithsonian Folkways)
. Mary Lou's Mass (Smithsonian Folkways)
. Black Christ of the Andes (Smithsonian Folkways)
. Zodiac Suite (Smithsonian Folkways)
. Andy Kirk & Mary Lou Williams: Mary's Idea (GRP) 1936-1940 Selections
. Andy Kirk and His Twelve Clouds of Joy: "Lotta Sax Appeal" (Frog)
1929-1930 complete