The Madison Music Collective celebrates Mary Lou Williams
The first woman of jazz
The first woman of jazz
By Jonathan Gramling
Part 2 of 2
Mary Lou Williams was a gem that was hidden in plain sight. She is in those old black and
white photos from way back — she was the First Lady of Jazz for almost 60 years — easily to be
seen by all. Williams was a child prodigy, playing the piano by the time she was four years old
and soon after making a living helping to make ends meet for her family. Maybe it was that she
was thrust into a nurturing role at such a tender age, a role that she never let go or grew out of.
So instead of being driven to be the most widely known virtuoso of jazz that the world had
ever known, she stayed behind the scenes nurturing this art form called jazz.
Fabu, Madison’s poet laureate and Jane Reynolds, pianist and composer, teamed up March
19 to perform a tribute to Mary Lou Williams at the Capitol Lakes Grand Ballroom. While Reynolds
played pieces composed or arranged by Williams, Fabu recited poetry she had written that were
inspired by — and named after — Williams’ work.
It was fitting that this tribute was held during Women’s History Month for Williams was a true
trailblazer. “She wasn’t a vocalist,” Fabu emphasized as we sat in Reynold’s living room with a
piano being the prominent feature of the room. “She was different. Oftentimes you would see her
in photographs and you get a glimpse of how it must have been complicated because the other
women, for the most part, on the jazz scene either sang in front of bands or they were wives and
girlfriends. And she wasn’t. She was a professional musician, a professional artist. That was her
career. At the time, she really had to stand alone.”
“I see her as figure like Billie Holliday in the sense that when Billie Holliday sang, there was
nothing like it,” Reynolds added. “You couldn’t teach someone to do that. She just sang from her
soul. And it was from her life. It was her life speaking through her songs. And that is exactly what
I hear in Mary Lou’s playing. It’s not what she plays as much as the way she plays it.”
For Reynolds, Williams’ treatment to date by jazz history was symbolized by a performance
she attended in the Madison Civic Center. “The opening act did a song they had written about jazz
pianists,” Reynolds recalled. “There were no women mentioned, not even Mary Lou. That was
very disturbing because this was a jazz pianist doing this and not to recognize any women
whatsoever was horrible.”
“What I really want to happen for Mary Lou Williams is what happened to Nora Neale
Hurston,” Fabu added. “Alice Walker came across her grave in an obscure plot with no real
marker. She was a great writer during the Harlem Renaissance and Walker gave her her due.
Part 2 of 2
Mary Lou Williams was a gem that was hidden in plain sight. She is in those old black and
white photos from way back — she was the First Lady of Jazz for almost 60 years — easily to be
seen by all. Williams was a child prodigy, playing the piano by the time she was four years old
and soon after making a living helping to make ends meet for her family. Maybe it was that she
was thrust into a nurturing role at such a tender age, a role that she never let go or grew out of.
So instead of being driven to be the most widely known virtuoso of jazz that the world had
ever known, she stayed behind the scenes nurturing this art form called jazz.
Fabu, Madison’s poet laureate and Jane Reynolds, pianist and composer, teamed up March
19 to perform a tribute to Mary Lou Williams at the Capitol Lakes Grand Ballroom. While Reynolds
played pieces composed or arranged by Williams, Fabu recited poetry she had written that were
inspired by — and named after — Williams’ work.
It was fitting that this tribute was held during Women’s History Month for Williams was a true
trailblazer. “She wasn’t a vocalist,” Fabu emphasized as we sat in Reynold’s living room with a
piano being the prominent feature of the room. “She was different. Oftentimes you would see her
in photographs and you get a glimpse of how it must have been complicated because the other
women, for the most part, on the jazz scene either sang in front of bands or they were wives and
girlfriends. And she wasn’t. She was a professional musician, a professional artist. That was her
career. At the time, she really had to stand alone.”
“I see her as figure like Billie Holliday in the sense that when Billie Holliday sang, there was
nothing like it,” Reynolds added. “You couldn’t teach someone to do that. She just sang from her
soul. And it was from her life. It was her life speaking through her songs. And that is exactly what
I hear in Mary Lou’s playing. It’s not what she plays as much as the way she plays it.”
For Reynolds, Williams’ treatment to date by jazz history was symbolized by a performance
she attended in the Madison Civic Center. “The opening act did a song they had written about jazz
pianists,” Reynolds recalled. “There were no women mentioned, not even Mary Lou. That was
very disturbing because this was a jazz pianist doing this and not to recognize any women
whatsoever was horrible.”
“What I really want to happen for Mary Lou Williams is what happened to Nora Neale
Hurston,” Fabu added. “Alice Walker came across her grave in an obscure plot with no real
marker. She was a great writer during the Harlem Renaissance and Walker gave her her due.
| Top: Jane Reynolds (l) and Fabu Above: Mary Lou Williams crafts a song |
Mary Lou Williams is this wonderful contributor to jazz and contemporary jazz and you don’t hear enough about her.”
Both of these artists have been touched by the work of Williams. “Everything she does — whether it is a slow blues because she is feeling pain or the
stride because she is feeling the joy, the sacred music she did — it touches me in a very special way,” Reynolds said. “There are not a lot of musicians
who can really do that so much. She wasn’t unique in the way that Thelonious Monk was unique. He was one of a kind. She was just wide-ranging. But all
of it, no matter what the style that she was playing — and she played every single style — it came from the same place in Mary Lou. And it was one of
those things that you can’t necessarily explain or put into words. It was her music that spoke and still speaks to me.”
As an African American artist, Fabu deeply relates to Williams’ life and work. “She had such a deep well of creativity,” Fabu emphasized. “She
affects my life in kind of an unusual way. I very much admire what she did and the way in which she did it. I empathize with her search for meaning and
love and truth and faith. I can connect with that.”
And it was that deep connection with Williams that inspired her poetry about her. “I think this is the very first time that I’ve written this many poems
in trying to capture the interior of someone whom I am only reading about or listening to her music,” Fabu said. “So for me, that is a great creative stretch,
wanting to feel what she felt when she was doing all of these things and to write it down and to hope that it is an honest interpretation on my part. I hope
it reflects some of the things that she went through. Am I putting too much of myself into who she is? I have pretty much enjoyed getting into her head. I
hate the fact that she died not necessarily alone, but really too much alone. It appears that even in relationships, Mary Lou was lonely. There were other
people whom she loved truly. But it just didn’t end well in terms of being connected. There was a lot of tragedy in her life.”
It is said that truth always becomes apparent and is revealed. Through the efforts of artists like Fabu and Jane Reynolds, Mary Lou Williams will gain
her rightful place in jazz history as the First Lady of Jazz because it was through her work that so many of the innovations of others came forward.
2010 is the centennial of Mary Lou Williams’ birth. And a little known fact is that Madison has a special connection to Williams for she did a residency at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1970s and performed one of the masses she wrote at the University Catholic Center on State Street. This truly
is a reason to celebrate Mary Lou Williams’ legacy.
Next issue: An interview with Father Peter O’Brien, head of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation.
Both of these artists have been touched by the work of Williams. “Everything she does — whether it is a slow blues because she is feeling pain or the
stride because she is feeling the joy, the sacred music she did — it touches me in a very special way,” Reynolds said. “There are not a lot of musicians
who can really do that so much. She wasn’t unique in the way that Thelonious Monk was unique. He was one of a kind. She was just wide-ranging. But all
of it, no matter what the style that she was playing — and she played every single style — it came from the same place in Mary Lou. And it was one of
those things that you can’t necessarily explain or put into words. It was her music that spoke and still speaks to me.”
As an African American artist, Fabu deeply relates to Williams’ life and work. “She had such a deep well of creativity,” Fabu emphasized. “She
affects my life in kind of an unusual way. I very much admire what she did and the way in which she did it. I empathize with her search for meaning and
love and truth and faith. I can connect with that.”
And it was that deep connection with Williams that inspired her poetry about her. “I think this is the very first time that I’ve written this many poems
in trying to capture the interior of someone whom I am only reading about or listening to her music,” Fabu said. “So for me, that is a great creative stretch,
wanting to feel what she felt when she was doing all of these things and to write it down and to hope that it is an honest interpretation on my part. I hope
it reflects some of the things that she went through. Am I putting too much of myself into who she is? I have pretty much enjoyed getting into her head. I
hate the fact that she died not necessarily alone, but really too much alone. It appears that even in relationships, Mary Lou was lonely. There were other
people whom she loved truly. But it just didn’t end well in terms of being connected. There was a lot of tragedy in her life.”
It is said that truth always becomes apparent and is revealed. Through the efforts of artists like Fabu and Jane Reynolds, Mary Lou Williams will gain
her rightful place in jazz history as the First Lady of Jazz because it was through her work that so many of the innovations of others came forward.
2010 is the centennial of Mary Lou Williams’ birth. And a little known fact is that Madison has a special connection to Williams for she did a residency at
the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the 1970s and performed one of the masses she wrote at the University Catholic Center on State Street. This truly
is a reason to celebrate Mary Lou Williams’ legacy.
Next issue: An interview with Father Peter O’Brien, head of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation.