New music piano improvisation recorded live, wild, nothing held back; humor and passion head on

17 MP3 Songs
JAZZ: Free Jazz, CLASSICAL: Contemporary



Details:
By the age of five, new music improviser Mary Anne Driscoll was singing and scatting with her Uncle Charley, a trumpet-playing encyclopedia of standards. Self taught on piano and improvising through childhood, she conducted choirs for composer Suzanne Toolan at school. She studied formally at College of San Mateo and San Francisco State and privately with vocalist Marie Gibson. She immersed herself in the new music scene in the Bay Area, performing original and improvised work, recording at Xandor Studios, and connecting with avant garde musicians from both coasts at Keystone Korner.

In the 70âs Mary Anne decided to follow the music to New York City. She reunited with her mentors Cecil Taylor and Jimmy Lyons. She worked as composer/arranger/pianist with Paul Murphy and played with Dewey Johnson, Karen Borca, William Parker, Jay Oliver and Eddie Gale at Aliâs Alley, Central Park Concert Series, and the Kool Festival to name a few. Mary was a regular and employee at Aliâs Alley, occasionally found sitting in on vocals or piano with Ted Danielâs Big Band Energy between drink orders.

Her commitment to live recording continued in the East. In 1981 Columbia Studios opened their doors to Mary Anne. She independently managed, recorded and released In a Dream Stream, a duo with Paul Murphy. In 1982 she recorded another session of original tunes with Paul; duos and trios with Jimmy Lyons, Dewey Johnson and Karen Borca; and when CBS Studios closed she worked with the same personnel at RCA in quintet format with Paul as bandleader, releasing Cloudburst in 1983. Then she went into the shed for several years concentrating on writing.

Driscoll lives in Maine where she composes, performs, teaches and continues recording. In 1992 she wrote a collection of vocal pieces dedicated to Jimmy Lyons, recording with William Parker and Paul at Mapleshade. In 1996 she formed a new music quintet with Michael Whitehead, Bruce Boege, Jimmy Lyden and Jeff Densmore that took New England by storm and was honored in 2000 as part of a cultural exchange with Hungary. In 2001 Jim Campbell produced a program for public radio on her music and philosophy.

Mary Anneâs work is relatively unfamiliar in the world, however that is changing. Her performances consistently draw enthusiastic, diverse crowds. She surfaced on Red Snapper, a Cadence Historical disc released in 2003. The CIMP label featured her on Inside Out, an instrumental reunion with Murphy in 2004. Later that year Mary Anne sang with the great Abbey Lincoln. In 2005 and 2006 she received ASCAP grants for composition. PASSAGE, her first solo release, was recorded live in Holland last February at Studio 44. She sings standards, original compositions and plays free piano improvisation. Mary played with Didier Lasserre in Bordeaux in February and is planning a return to France next spring. PASSAGE is now available at cdbaby.com.