1.00pm Music: 1.30pm Photo: Martin Archer Our spring series continues on Sunday afternoon 10th May, when Adam Fairhall (piano) and Johnny Hunter (snare drum) make their long-awaited return to the intimate surroundings of Seven Arts. These stalwarts of Manchester’s creative music scene will be lovingly exploring the musical legacy of ‘the first lady of jazz’, Mary Lou Williams, through their avant-garde lens. Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records. She s wrote and arranged for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie. Mary Lou Williams lived and played the entire history of jazz from ragtime to avant-garde with her own hands and imagination, and that restless and inquisitive spirit is lovingly channelled by the duo. Adam Fairhall and Johnny Hunter both understand and demonstrate in their playing that new music does not appear out of nowhere. Any musician in any genre is part of a lineage, a straight line from the past out into the future, and serious creative musicians will know that their duty is to walk that line forwards. ‘The joyous renditions of Williams’ material are clearly full of affection as the pair deconstruct, fragment and even totally abandon them. Ultimately, the merry confluence of jaunty swinging grooves and spirited digressions into the weeds enriches both! – John Sharpe, New York City Jazz Record Check out their album ‘Play Mary Lou Williams’ at: https://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/play-mary-lou-williams-187cd-2025 £12/10 plus fees in advance, £12 on the door