Who is Mary Lou Williams and why is the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performing her 'Zodiac Suite'?

Pianist Aaron Diehl is wrapping up his second season as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra's artistic partner by performing the full orchestral version of Mary Lou Williams' "Zodiac Suite" May 26-28.

Here's a look at the factors that make this a distinctive and unusual concert program.

Who is Mary Lou Williams?

"Although for decades she was often called jazz's greatest female musician (and one has to admire what must have been a nonstop battle against sexism), she would have been considered a major artist no matter what her sex," Scott Yanow writes in his biographical entry on Williams at allmusic.com. Echoing Yanow, John S. Wilson called Williams "the first woman to be ranked with the greatest of jazz musicians" in his 1981 obituary of her for the New York Times.

Born in Atlanta and raised in Pittsburgh, Williams (1910-'81) was a child prodigy as a pianist, impressing Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong while she was still a teenager. She first made her mark nationally as pianist, arranger and composer for Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy. She wrote the hit "Roll 'Em" for Benny Goodman and composed or arranged for other big bands, including Tommy Dorsey and Ellington.

Yanow writes that Williams and Ellington "were virtually the only stride pianists to modernize their style through the years." Stride refers to a style of piano that grew out of ragtime, with a powerful left hand and creative use of rhythmic tension.

Williams was a friend, mentor and collaborator with younger modernists of the 1940s and 1950s, including Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonious Monk.

What is her 'Zodiac Suite?'

In 1945, Williams finished composing and first performed her "Zodiac Suite," an extended work of 12 pieces based on the astrological signs from Aries to Pisces. Musical scholars who have analyzed the work describe it as a fusion of jazz and classical elements — putting Williams at least a decade ahead of the "third stream" movement of blending those two styles.

A cool bonus for fans of jazz and Black cultural history: Williams dedicated and/or drew from performers born under each sign for the suite. Some are still household names: Billie Holiday for "Aries"; Ellington for "Taurus" (her own sign); Monk and Art Tatum for "Libra." Others are less widely known today, including trombonist Vic Dickenson ("Leo") and dancer Pearl Primus ("Capricorn"). In connection with the MSO concerts, the orchestra and the Milwaukee Public Library have created a webpage of "Zodiac Suite" resources that includes all the dedicatees and links to info about them.

Williams recorded "Zodiac Suite" in a trio format in 1945. That album was rereleased by Smithsonian Folkways in 1995 and can be heard on streaming services. Later, she performed it with a chamber-jazz group and then with a symphony orchestra at a concert at Carnegie Hall. Diehl and the MSO are performing an arrangement by Jeffrey Sultanof and Rob DuBoff.

Why is Aaron Diehl performing 'Zodiac Suite'?

In a video interview with MSO music director Ken-David Masur, Diehl described Williams as a powerful influence on the generation of musicians that included Gillespie, Charlie Parker and Bud Powell in the same way that Nadia Boulanger was a mentor for younger classical composers. Williams was specifically inspired by Ellington's long-form composition "Black Brown and Beige," Diehl pointed out.

"She was really a modernist, even though she had this whole history of the tradition at her fingertips," Diehl said in the video interview, praising her grasp of the jazz continuum. "She was always looking forward … to evolve her style."

If you've heard Diehl's prior performances of Gershwin and Ellington with the MSO, you will know that musically speaking, he's kin to Williams, conversant with swing and stride but also forward facing.

Diehl performed some excerpts from the orchestral "Zodiac Suite" with a chamber-sized segment of the New York Philharmonic in 2021.

What other music is the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra performing in this program?

In a heavenly bit of programming, the MSO has paired "Zodiac Suite" with Gustav Holst's famed suite "The Planets," with seven movements named for planets and purported to suggest their astrological characters.

If you go

Pianist Aaron Diehl and the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra perform at 7:30 p.m. May 26-27, and 2:30 p.m. May 28 at Bradley Symphony Center, 212 W. Wisconsin Ave. For tickets, visit mso.org or call (414) 291-7605.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What you need to know about Milwaukee Symphony's 'Zodiac Suite' shows