MARY LOU WILLIAMS

Born: 1910 in Atlanta; raised in Pittsburgh
Left home at 13 to tour with vaudeville/carnival act
Education: child prodigy, no formal music training; perfect pitch

Inspired by: Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Thelonius Monk, Dizzy Gillespie

Inspired: countless musicians including Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Marian McPartland (“There isn’t a jazz musician alive that doesn’t owe Mary Lou Williams” - Joan Kufrin)

Band credits: Led Syncopators swing band when she was 16; Composed and arranged for Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy in Kansas City; also arranged and composed for several top swing bands including Duke Ellington, Dorseys, Benny Goodman

Major musical milestones:
Mentor and friend of beboppers Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell;
Composed the Zodiac Suite - for classical and jazz players;
Composed jazz masses for the Catholic Church

Quotes:
Mary Lou was “soul on soul” - Duke Ellington

“Mary Lou Williams is perpetually contemporary. Her writing and performing are and have always been just a little ahead throughout her career” -Duke Ellington

“From suffering came the spirituals. Songs of joy and songs of sorrow. The main origin of American jazz is a spiritual. Because of the deeply religious background of the Black American he was able to mix this strong influence with rhythms that reach deep enough into the inner self to give expression to outcries of censored joy which became known as jazz” - Mary Lou Williams

Links to videos

Les Mouches Cabaret show 1978 - a History of Jazz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IcLwQn9PDE4

 Mary Lou on Oscar Peterson’s show- 1980?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu6s6fuDABk

More resources and information about each composer are found at
Mary Lou Williams
Geri Allen
Carla Bley
Christine Jensen