ADAM FAIRHALL & JOHNNY HUNTER PLAY MARY LOU WILLIAMS (Discus/ Bandcamp) (CD & DL)

Mancunians Fairhall and Hunter get back to basics with an upright piano and a snare drum. The origins of this recording are unusual in that the recording was instigated by Martin Archer after hearing the two men performing a Williams piece (She of personal fame as well as by association with Ellington, Monk and Parker et al). It is amazing to hear a near 8-minutes long evocation of ‘Roll ‘Em’ basically a 12-bar boogie-woogie with a liberal dose of free jazz. There’s lots of stride piano as on ‘Nightlife’ and the standard ‘Lady Be Good’ (also reprised). ‘Fandangle’ is great fun, the stuff of comic silent movies. ‘Nicole’ is played in major and minor keys, veering between blues and freeform improvisation while ‘A Fungus Amungus’ is solo piano. Mary Lou Williams is mentioned numerous times in Ted Gioia’s seminal “The Jazz Standards” book (including covers of three Miles Davis tunes) but it is ragtime, boogie woogie and 12-bar blues that rub shoulders with the avant-garde on this delightful recording.