Once upon a time, the topic of women playing jazz elicited titters that seemed to imply a lack of competence on the distaff side. Today, jazz fans have proof that women jazz musicians are every bit as capable as the men whose names have become legend. Consider bebop greats Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie who shamelessly credited their mentor, Mary Lou Williams, with their success. Mary Lou who?
One hundred years ago this month, Mary Lou Williams was born in Pittsburgh. If we could zoom back through time, we might see the two-year old’s chubby fingers tickling the keys of the family piano. Even as her family doted over their gifted offspring, they could not dream that she was destined to become the first woman musician recognized by her peers and critics alike as a remarkable jazz pianist, composer, arranger and educator.
Growing up in Pittsburgh, as had Mary Lou, I often overheard my father playing his Duke Ellington recording of “Blue Skies” on our Victrola. Like most, he doubtless assumed that the Irving Berlin song my mother sang while whipping up a chocolate cake or lemon meringue pie in the kitchen had been reinterpreted by Ellington himself, if not by his long-time arranger Billy Strayhorn.
Years later, while teaching vocal music near Rochester, New York, I interviewed trumpet player Chuck Mangione, pianist Marian McPartland, and other jazz greats who stopped by to perform and share their expertise with youngsters in our school music program. When asked to name their major influences, all included Mary Lou Williams. Clearly, I needed to learn more about this genius whose first public performance was with Duke Ellington at age 15. To that end, I began researching her life, seeking out her vintage recordings and exchanging impressions with fellow jazz fans.
Along the way, I attended a concert featuring her “Mass” as the centerpiece. Confirming her brilliance, the program notes recounted her extensive contributions of original compositions and arrangements for Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey. Long before Williams emerged from the shadows and was acknowledged by those colleagues as the genius behind many of their hits, her peers understood her clout.
As her influence on the jazz scene snowballed, she composed, arranged, performed, recorded, hosted a weekly radio show in New York, and spent four years as artist-in-residence at Duke University. All the while, she inspired other women to pursue careers in jazz. Today the fruits of her example are heard in big bands and jazz ensembles worldwide and hailed each May at the Kennedy Center’s Annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival created in 1981 by Dr. Billy Taylor.
Now in its 15th year, this year’s festival is hosted by jazz vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and drummer Terri Lyne Carrington. The opening concert features an all-star quintet comprised of Bridgewater, Carrington, pianist Geri Allen, bassist Esperanza Spalding, and saxophonist Grace Kelly, each a winner of multiple awards in her field.
“I love that so many women are involved in jazz as musicians, composers and singers,” said Bridgewater, a linchpin of the Festival since its beginning and the star of “Lady Day,” the musical about Billie Holiday that brought Paris and London audiences to their feet last year. “The five of us gave a concert together last season in Mississippi and the audience went absolutely wild. It’s exciting to open this Festival together and to share the power of female jazz artists and show their capability to the audience. When these jazz women perform, people realize there is no difference between them and the very best male jazz artists.”