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Artist
Mary Lou Williams
12+ albums
jazzpianojazz pianoblueswomen in jazz
about
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. In 1930, she joined Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy, of which her first husband, saxophonist John Williams, was already a member, and became the band's leading soloist, composer, and arranger. Williams contributed to the band book of most of the other swing bands too; for Benny Goodman she wrote "Roll 'Em". In 1941 she worked as a staff arranger with Duke Ellington for about six months, although "Trumpet No End" (an arrangement derived from the standard "Blue Skies") was not recorded by Ellington until 1946. In 1942 she formed her own group with her second husband Harold Shorty Baker and also continued working as a solo act into the 1970s, incorporating modern ideas into her playing. As the 1940s progressed she became a mentor to the emerging generation of bebop, becoming close to Thelonious Monk. 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 Roman Catholic Church in Harlem. Her spiritual adviso
top songs
albums
Mary Lou Williams Presents Black Christ of the Andes
Mary Lou Williams
Early Jazz (Remastered)
Free Spirits
Zodiac Suite
Mary Lou Williams Plays in London (Jazz Connoisseur)
Black Christ Of The Andes
Gilles Peterson - Magic Peterson Sunshine
My Mama Pinned A Rose On Me
I Made You Love Paris
Live at the Cookery
Zoning