Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 ? May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. She was born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens.

Related Topics:
May 8 - 1910 - May 28 - 1981 - American - Jazz - Pianist - Composer - Arranger - Atlanta, Georgia - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

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In 1930, she joined Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy, of which her husband John Williams was already a member, and became the band's leading soloist, composer, and arranger. In 1942 she formed her own group with her second husband Harold Baker and then worked briefly with Duke Ellington before working as a solo act into the 1970s, incorporating modern ideas into her playing. She also taught at Duke University as an Artist-in-Residence from 1977 until her death in 1981. In 1983, Duke University established the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.

Related Topics:
1930 - Andy Kirk - Twelve Clouds of Joy - John Williams - 1942 - Harold Baker - Duke Ellington - 1970s - Duke University

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On a personal front she had a varied spiritual journey which included preaching as an Abyssinian Baptist for a time. However by the mid-1950s a jazz-loving priest named John Crowley, not to be confused with the author John Crowley, began her move toward Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Harlem. Although her spiritual advisor in the Church would be Father Anthony S. Woods who baptized her in 1957. After this she became involved in charities like "Bel Canto" and had thrift shops for the poor. She also did religious music like "Black Christ of the Andes." She vowed to donate ten percent of its prophets to the poor, but the sales were disappointing toward that end and Bel Canto ultimately collapsed in 1968. Her evangelism returned to spreading jazz, but the two drives merged in the 1970s when she conducted the first Catholic Mass to be entirely jazz music.

Related Topics:
Abyssinian - Baptist - 1950s - John Crowley - Our Lady of Lourdes - Catholic Church - Harlem - 1957

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Some of her more famous compositions include Benny Goodman's hit "Roll 'Em".

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