The 1974 Zoning presents pianist Mary Lou Williams in various configurations, from solo to quartet, and she takes in a range that embraces everything from funk to free jazz. Though she would periodically leave the music business, Williams had one of the most extraordinary careers in jazz, collaborating with everyone from Jelly Roll Morton to Cecil Taylor in a career that spanned over half a century. Always open to new influences, she also influenced others along the way, including essential figures like Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell. The initial formation here is a standard trio, with bassist Bob Cranshaw and drummer Mickey Roker, but there's nothing ordinary about the way Williams asserts her identity, blending strong two-handed playing with spacious modality and some striking, original flourishes. A second pianist, Zita Carno, joins Williams on the brief "Intermission" and the longer "Zoning Fungus II", an intensely abstract performance that looks ahead to Williams' controversial collaboration with Cecil Taylor, Embraced. Two duos with Cranshaw, the ballad "Holy Ghost" and the blues number "Medi I", are taken at very slow tempos and they develop luminous depths, with Williams sculpting her notes and showing her rare kind of lyricism. The final tracks present Williams in a very different trio, with bassist Milton Suggs and conga drummer Tony Waters. Suggs' floating, multi-note style is in marked contrast to Cranshaw's rock-solid concentration on fundamentals and it brings out a more impetuous Williams in the free interplay of "Praise the Lord". The tune "Gloria" is heard in versions by each trio, the contrasts emphasising how inventive an improviser Williams was. --Stuart Broomer