This movie is terrible. It doesn't cover even half of Ms. Williams's wealth of accomplishments, her concerts and performances, her recordings, her contributions to jazz, her foundation, her innovations, etc. See the Encyclopedia of Jazz, including the 60s & 70s editions, for facts. See also the Penguin Guide to Jazz, for facts, including a history of Williams's discography.
Ms. Williams was not the victim portrayed in this politically-correct, narrow-minded, mean film. She was not persecuted or victimized because she was a dark-skinned black or a woman. She, instead, rose up over adversity.
Carol Nash, the director, a black woman, knows nothing about music. As is the trend these days, she exploits racial divisions. She divides, not unites. Instead of facts, we get ideology. Her film has an axe to grind. Her film is imprisoned by a straightjacket of ideological preconceptions and prejudices. It is biased. Nash does a disservice to the life of a wonderful woman, who happened to be black.
Ms. Williams's spirit, intelligence, talent and character enabled her to have a rich and rewarding life. Her contribution to music cannot be diminished by this small, petty film.
It seems to me that Ms. Williams's major talent may have not been performing and improvising, but composing and arranging, like Quincy Jones and Billy Strayhorn. Strayhorn's major accomplishment was in working with Ellington, as arranger and composer. Jones produced Michael Jackson, giving Jackson that million dollar sound - and Jones paid the price for working under such stressful, though lucrative, conditions: he had a quintuple bypass. This may explain why Williams may have found it difficult to get recording contracts on her own, to have a lucrative "hit" of her own. The movie even shows that she wrote down her solos before her first recording. By contrast, Thelonious Monk never did this - he wanted his recordings to be first takes, completely spontaneous. (See the excellent documentary Thelonius Monk: Straight, No Chaser by Charlotte Zwerin.)
Of course, Ms. Williams suffered setbacks and failures. Don't we all?
Her Zodiac Suite received negative reviews. So what? The Penguin Guide states that its use of an orchestra is bland, like soundtrack music. I, for one, think Charley Parker's use of strings was also schlock.
Williams wasn't the only jazz musician who had to struggle. In order to stay together and pay the musicians, Ellington's band played in a high-school gymnasium in Hershey, PA. (The recording of this is marvelous.) It was difficult for both Ellington and Basie to keep a large band together, but they did it for decades. They made compromises. Basie even recorded with Sinatra, who, IMO, is the king of schlock.
Ben Webster, a giant of the tenor sax, who's also mentioned in this movie, couldn't make a living in the US in his later years. He ended up living alone and isolated in Denmark, doing small gigs with second-rate Danish combos.
If you want to make money, you have to sell. Mediocrity sells. Money lies in the lowest common denominator. Nash holds up Lena Horne as an example of the financial success denied to Ms. Williams because of her dark skin. But Horne was not an artist, not a jazz musician. She was merely a pop entertainer. Beyoncé, also a pop entertainer, makes tens of millions of dollars by pandering to the lowest common denominator. That's how she won 100 Grammy's. Williams had more talent in her little finger than Beyoncé in her whole body.
Mary Lou Williams is to be admired, not pitied.
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