Spotlight on Female Musicians: Mary Lou Williams
Today is International Women's Day! Today through the weekend, we're going to highlight female composers, pianists, and singers who we find particularly inspiring.
First is Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981), who was an African-American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote for, arranged for, and mentored to jazz greats including Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. She started playing piano professionally when she was six and was touring by the age of thirteen. Eventually, in the mid-1950s, she retired from performing for four years and converted to Catholicism. She started a foundation to help addicted musicians, and founded her own recording label and publishing company as well as the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival. After she returned to performing, she composed many sacred works (including a Mass), and she was the first jazz musician to perform at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City. She taught at Duke University and received honorary degrees from Duke and Fordham, as well as other colleges. "Black Christ of the Andes" is one of her outstanding choral works written shortly after her conversion. It is dedicated to the then-recently-canonized St. Martin de Porres, patron saint of those who seek racial harmony. He was a Dominican lay brother of mixed race who devoted his life to caring for the destitute, the sick, and orphans. These causes were very dear to Mary Lou Williams' heart (as evidenced by her philanthropic work), and they are also reflected in her choice of lyrics. "....oh, Black Christ of the Andes, come feed and cure us now we pray! [....] St. Martin de Porres, he gentled creatures tame and wild; St. Martin de Porres, he sheltered each unsheltered child."
At the end of her career, she took to distributing a pamphlet at her concerts entitled "Jazz for the Soul": "[....] The creative process of improvisation cannot be easily explained. The moment a soloist’s hands touch the instrument, ideas start to flow from the mind, through the heart, and out the fingertips. Or, at least, that is the way it should be. Therefore, if the mind stops, there are no ideas, just mechanical patterns. If the heart doesn’t fulfill its role, there will be very little feeling, or none... at all. [....] YOUR ATTENTIVE PARTICIPATION, THRU LISTENING WITH YOUR EARS AND YOUR HEART, WILL ALLOW YOU TO ENJOY FULLY THIS EXCHANGE OF IDEAS, TO SENSE THESE VARIOUS MOODS, AND TO REAP THE FULL THERAPEUTIC REWARDS THAT GOOD MUSIC ALWAYS BRINGS TO A TIRED, DISTURBED SOUL AND ALL “WHO DIG THE SOUNDS.” "
