Oct 11, 2021
Though jazz composer and pianist Mary Lou Williams, who died in 1981, is not as well-known today as contemporaries such as Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Dizzy Gillespie, her musical and spiritual legacy is lately the focus of renewed, and well-deserved, appreciation. She was on the cover of a recent issue of JazzTimes, and earlier this year we had Chris Pattishall on the Podcast discussing his version of her classic “Zodiac Suite” plus her former pupil Bill Cunliffe reminiscing about her. Now, a new biography of Ms. Williams explores the spiritual journey that led her to convert to Catholicism, and to spend the rest of her life sharing her gospel message that “jazz is love.”
In Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul (Liturgical Press), Deanna Witkowski, offers a poignant portrait of the pioneering jazz pianist-composer. Ms. Witkowski is a jazz composer, pianist, and interpreter of Williams’s work, whose forthcoming album, Force of Nature (MCG Jazz) features all Williams compositions. She presents the full Mary Lou: “a forward-thinking, breathtakingly original pianist and composer,” who mentored some of the greatest musicians of the twentieth century—including Powell, Charlie Parker, and Art Blakey—and a deeply spiritual person who found solace in the Catholic faith and believed in the healing power of jazz.
A liturgical jazz pioneer, Williams composed three Mass settings, and devotional works such as “Black Christ of the Andes,” honoring St. Martin de Porres. In the final years of her life, Williams finally had the chance to fully integrate her spirituality, music, and her teaching in her frequent performances of “Mary Lou’s Mass”, and her history of jazz demonstrations, around the world at at Duke University, where she made her academic home.
Deanna is an award-winning jazz pianist and composer who recently relocated to Mary Lou Williams’s hometown of Pittsburgh after spending twenty-three years as a New Yorker. Her seven recordings include the forthcoming Force of Nature (MCG Jazz) featuring all Williams compositions and Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns (Tilapia Records), featuring 14 jazz arrangements of classic hymns alongside a companion sheet music book. As a frequent guest music leader, Witkowski has shared her original liturgical jazz in over one hundred churches throughout the United States. Musical selections include one part of the "Zodiac Suite", "Cancer" paired with "Act of Contrition," and "Carcinoma."