Pretty Eyed Baby
by Mary Lou Williams
Brass Ensemble - Digital Sheet Music

Brass Ensemble - Level 4 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.808709

By Eldridge/Gillespie. By Leo Mosley, Mary Lou Williams, William Luther Johnson, and William Willie Johnson. Arranged by F. Leslie Smith. Contemporary. Score and parts. 28 pages. Sweetwater Brass Press #6433397. Published by Sweetwater Brass Press (A0.808709).

    Mary Lou Williams learned to play piano on her own at age 3. By age 6 she was playing piano to help support her large family. At age 15, she turned professional, and by the time she was 20, she had made a name for herself nationally not only as a jazz musician but also as an arranger and composer. In 1943, she wrote a piece titled "Satchel Mouth Baby," which she recorded the next year with her group, Mary Lou and her Chosen Five. Three years later, Bill Johnson and His Musical Notes recorded Williams’ song after he and Leo "Snub" Mosley had worked on the lyrics and changed the title to "Pretty Eyed Baby." Others would go on to record "Pretty Eyed Baby," among them: Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford, Jane Turzy, Johnnie Ray, Peggy Lee and Roy Eldridge.
    This arrangement skips along at about 120 bpm. It contains common swing rhythmic figures, and all notes are well within the normal playing range of most brass musicians. Horn in F and Trombone carry the melodic load, but all instruments get a turn at playing lead. This is a fun piece, so don’t be surprised if your audience starts clapping along while you’re playing.
    Completed in 2021, performance time for "Pretty Eyed Baby" runs about 3 minutes,9 seconds. The arranger, Les Smith, will be happy to provide substitute parts (for example, treble clef baritone for trombone) at no charge; contact him directly at lessmith61@bellsouth.net. For more arrangements by Les, enter "Sweetwater Brass Press" (without the quotation marks) in the SheetMusicPlus search box.