Sacred Rhythms

She was known as “the Little
Piano Girl” from East Liberty, Pittsburgh, and grew up to be one of the first
ladies of jazz. But the story of Mary Lou Williams, from child prodigy to world-class
artist, is not just about jazz.

Born in Atlanta in 1910, Mary
Lou’s family suffered from poverty and discrimination, and, like many black
Americans at the time, moved north in hopes of a better life. But in
Pittsburgh, they faced similar hardships—including strangers who threw bricks at
their windows. Then Mary Lou’s talent was discovered.

As a child, Mary Lou revealed
an amazing ability to play back music she had just heard, note for note, on the
pump organ in the family home. She parlayed that gift into replaying the hit
music of the day and creating her own melodies, without formal training. Her
reputation spread, and soon wealthy neighbors began inviting Mary Lou to
entertain guests, being paid to do what she loved.

While still a teenager, Mary
Lou was invited to perform with traveling bands and eagerly accepted. After
marrying saxophonist John Williams, they joined Andy Kirk and his Clouds of
Joy, touring with a string of hits. Mary Lou became the band’s main composer
and arranger, as well its star pianist. Her recordings “Drag-Em” and “Nite Life” garnered
national recognition and critical praise.

Success did not come easily. Even
among more tolerant musicians, Mary Lou faced sexist discrimination: Women were
usually welcomed as vocalists, not as players, composers, or arrangers. But her
talent could not be ignored. She became a master of every style of jazz—the
blues, stride, swing, boogie-woogie and bebop. Legends like Benny Goodman and
Duke Ellington began commissioning her works; and Louis Armstrong even asked
her to join his tour.

Moving to New York in the
1940’s, Mary Lou became the lead act at the Café Society Downtown and was given
her own radio show. Her apartment, in the Sugar Hill section of Harlem, became
a meeting place for rising stars like Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, and Dizzy
Gillespie, all of whom Mary mentored. It was during this creative period that
Mary Lou produced her first extended composition, Zodiac
Suite, which premiered at Town Hall to enormous acclaim.

Combining her dynamic music
with a deep social conscience, Mary Lou actively pursued civil rights and
social justice, which brought conflict and even danger, as Farah Jasmine
Griffin recounts in Harlem
Nocturne. Mary Lou’s circle was suspected of subversive activities, and
became a target during the McCarthy era. But all Mary Lou wanted, as Griffin
shows, was what America promised—true freedom and opportunity for all.

In 1952, although her professional
career had reached a peak with a two-year tour across Europe, Mary Lou’s
private life was moving in the opposite direction. She had survived two failed marriages,
a gambling addiction, and—though reticent about it—serious abuse. Physically
and emotionally drained, she decided to stop performing and turned, slowly but surely,
toward God.

Mary Lou had always been
spiritual, but her life on the road had made any disciplined faith impossible. Now,
given a second chance, she seized it. Returning to New York, she began
attending numerous churches, finding peace at Our Lady of Lourdes in Harlem. She
immersed herself in prayer, gave away her luxuries, set up charitable
organizations, and began personally nursing drug-addicted musicians back to
health.

Under the instruction of Fr.
Anthony Woods, SJ, she was received in the Catholic faith and was baptized in
1957. For a time, she considered giving up music altogether, but Fr. Woods and
her supporters convinced her she could serve God and the Church through her
music.

In 1963, she fulfilled that
promise, recording Black
Christ of the Andes, dedicated to St. Martin de Porres, the
first black saint from the Americas, beloved for his ministry to the poor. It was
a work of astonishing beauty, and coincided with Martin Luther King’s “I Have a
Dream” speech—both demonstrating that Christianity at its best was about
upholding human dignity.

When Time magazine profiled
Mary Lou, it caught the attention of Peter O’Brien, then a young Jesuit
seminarian. “What floored me about the article most,” Fr. O’Brien told me
recently, “was not just the tribute to her superlative music, but the image of
the great pianist kneeling at the communion rail at the Church of St. Francis
Xavier,” the same church attached to the high school O’Brien had attended. Her
words struck him as well: “I am praying through my fingers when I play,” she
told Time, “and I try to touch
people’s spirits.”

O’Brien went to see her
perform, and the two became great friends—so much so that O’Brien became her
manager and helped guide her work over the next two decades. During that time,
Mary Lou’s career flourished, producing three sacred Masses, one of which, Mary
Lou’s Mass, was adopted by the great choreographer Alvin Ailey.

But news of a “jazz Mass” by
Mary Lou, met with resistance. In 1973, when she performed Mary Lou’s Mass at a Kansas City Church, protestors held up
placards that read, “NO JAZZ!” But inside the packed Church, a
different spirit prevailed, as hundreds welcomed Mary Lou’s beautiful and
reverent production.

As Fr. O’Brien points out, one
of the keys to Mary Lou’s success was her humility: She always worked closely
with Church authorities and accepted their counsel. As a result, her work was
heard not just in small parishes but St. Patrick’s Cathedral, on Vatican Radio,
and at a seminary chapel in Rome—following a private
audience with Pope Paul VI.

Today, Mary Lou’s influence continues
to grow, as festivals and concerts devoted to her music reach new audiences
and artists, both inside and outside the Church. To encourage her work, Fr. O’Brien
heads the Mary Lou Williams
Foundation, which preserves and promotes her music through education,
concerts, and re-issues of her classic compositions.

When she died in 1981, her
stature and faith were recognized throughout the world. “At her funeral, in New
York,” writes Fr. O’Brien, “at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola (where she had
been baptized) the musical world gathered. Dizzy Gillespie played, and Benny
Goodman and Andy Kirk attended. Excerpts from Mary Lou’s Mass were sung.”

Her body was then taken to
Pittsburgh where another Mass was celebrated, with friends and relatives in
attendance, at the Jesuit Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, just as Mary Lou requested.

Her life of seventy years was
like a great jazz melody itself—somber and joyful, delicate and strong, full of
surprises, with an ending both elegant and triumphant.

William Doino Jr. is a contributor to Inside the Vatican magazine, among many other publications, and writes often about religion, history and politics. He contributed an extensive bibliography of works on Pius XII to The Pius War: Responses to the Critics of Pius XII. His previous articles can be found here.

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