Mary Lou Williams was one of the few female jazz pianists to achieve fame during the middle of the 20th Century. She was also a much sought after composer, arranger and mentor. Mary Lou wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions). Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie. Three of her compositions were scored for a Carnegie Hall concert played by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1946!
The top video, Willow Weep For Me, is a popular 1932 standard from The Mary Lou Williams Collection 1927-59 and features her trio. The bottom two offerings, The Man I Love (1978) on the left and Mary Lou Plays Some Blues (1980) on the right are live solo performances recorded toward the end of her fabulous career..
