Force of Nature

Force of Nature

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On Force of Nature, her lovingly conceived and radiantly realized seventh album, Deanna Witkowski has created a multi-leveled masterpiece. Due out January 28, 2022 on MCG Jazz, the album displays her glorious musicianship and encyclopedic command of genres and techniques, while also revisiting the compositional genius of the major 20th-century artist Mary Lou Williams. The album also documents the firm musical and spiritual connection between Williams and Witkowski.
 
Released in the same year as Witkowski’s first book – Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, her detailed and engaging biography of Williams – Force of Nature caps off 20 years of immersive research into the life and work of the woman called “The First Lady of Jazz.”
 
To fans and students of her music, Mary Lou (who died in 1981) stands tall as one of the best-known but still undervalued women in jazz history: a marvelous and harmonically intrepid pianist; a pioneering composer-arranger, admired (and hired) by Duke Ellington; an influential educator and early adopter of bebop; and one of the first jazz artists to infuse her music with her Catholic faith, most notably in three jazz Masses.
 
To the well-traveled and exhilarating pianist-composer Witkowski, Mary Lou is all those things and something more: an inspiration, certainly, but also a guiding light – and, in absentia, a life coach for the deeply religious Witkowski, whose own resume includes an impressive number of award-winning sacred-music compositions. “I think of Mary Lou as a mentor, because she’s someone who was able to really integrate her spirituality, her Catholicism, with her music,” says Witkowski.
 
Over the last two decades, Williams’s music has become an ongoing source of study and interpretation for Witkowski, finally leading her to a new hometown and a side career as a biographer-academic, currently working on her Ph.D. in jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh.

Track List

  1. Gjon Mili Jam Session [04:49]
  2. Aries (from Zodiac Suite) [03:15]
  3. Taurus (from Zodiac Suite) [03:39]
  4. Cancer (from Zodiac Suite)/Act of Contrition (from Mary Lou’s Mass) [05:32]
  5. Lonely Moments [05:59]
  6. What’s Your Story Morning Glory / Ghost of Love [09:49]
  7. Force of Nature [05:34]
  8. Intermission [06:11]
  9. Dirge Blues [07:06]
  10. Carcinoma [03:57]
  11. Stompin’ at the Savoy [06:06]
  12. My Blue Heaven [08:53]

Credits

The Band:
Deanna Witkowski, piano
Clay Jenkins, trumpet (1, 4, 5, 10)
Scott Latzky, drums (1-7, 11)
Dwayne Dolphin, bass (8, 9, 12)
Roger Humphries, drums (8, 9, 12)
Daniel Foose, bass (1-7, 10, 11)

Recorded in January 2021 at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, PA
Producer: Marty Ashby
Associate Producer: Renée Govanucci
Recording Engineer: David R. Sykut
Mixing and Editing Engineer: David R. Sykut, Jay Dudt Mastering Engineer: Jesse Naus, Red Caiman Media Graphic design: Greg Schooley Design
Back cover photography: Erika Kapin
Cover art: Stephanie Armbruster
Recorded in January 2021 at Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild, Pittsburgh, PA
www.mcgjazz.org
All compositions by Mary Lou Williams except where indicated.
All publishing by Cecilia Music Publishing Co. (ASCAP) except where indicated.

(P) 2022 MCG Jazz
(C) 2022 MCG Jazz