Goddess energy and Black History Month
Mary Lou Williams
b May 8, 1910 (Taurus) Atlanta, GA, Mary Elfrieda Scruggs
d. May 28, 1981 Durham, NC
Married to musician Shorty Baker (divorced 1942)
A world renowned jazz pianist, Mary Lou's talent first caught her mother's attention when Mary Lou broke her arm. The neighbors had been coming by asking about her. Seems she had been giving private piano concerts to the white neighbors who had been throwing bricks at their home, in order to get them to stop. It had worked. his turned lucrative for her and her family as her piano concerts were soon parties where she was getting paid.
Williams became a mentor to greats like Charlie Parker, Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie. She wrote and arranged for Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Behind these great men, stood a Black woman teaching, being a muse, and mentoring.
She was a professional musician by the age of 15 and spent her early adult years touring and playing on the road. She also had a weekly radio show, and says at some point, music began to take over her life. During a performance in France, she got up from the piano and walked away, vowing to not perform again. She stayed in Europe for several years in the 50s and at the urging of Dizzy Gillespie and his wife, she returned to America and to music.
She was a mainstay in a male dominated industry and Williams returned to music at the urging of her priest and ultimately began teaching music the history of Jazz at Duke University with the intent to teach against the whitewashing of the genre that eventually occurred mainstream. Her music and compositions were used by Alvin Ailey and she also played Carnegie Hall. She is also one of three women to appear in the iconic photograph A Great Day In Harlem.
"Jazz is healing for the soul."
I love that she took a break for her mental health, but realized how important she was to music and found a way to return and honor herself and her craft. Goddess energy at work.