A & E

Twenty-seven years after her death, Mary Lou Williams continues to blaze a path in jazz.

On Thursday, the innovative pianist and arranger who grew up in Pittsburgh will become the first female instrumentalist to be inducted into the Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

It doesn't surprise Nathan Davis, director of jazz at the University of Pittsburgh, who says, "She was well known as the baddest piano player in New York City."

Erika Floreska, director of education at Jazz at Lincoln Center, agrees and talks of Williams being a "mentor for the bebop generation."

Williams (1910-81) joins saxophonist Ornette Coleman, arranger Gil Evans and singer Bessie Smith as this year's inductees. With them, there will be 34 members in the hall that began in 2004.

Besides the New York honor, Williams also is being remembered at the new "Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation" display at the Senator John Heinz History Center in the Strip District.

She is a main focus of a film about jazz at the display. The exhibit includes her piano, borrowed from the jazz hall of fame at Pitt, where it was acquired by Davis after her death.

Williams and Smith bring to four the number of female members of the hall; the others are singers Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. The pianist joins trumpeter Roy Eldridge and Earl "Fatha" Hines as other Pittsburgh-area stars enshrined there.

Floreska says Williams forged an important role in jazz at a time when jazz was not female-friendly, especially to instrumentalists.

She believes, though, that Williams' work as an arranger and composer is an even more important side to her fame. Besides composing a Mass in 1969 that was choreographed by the Alvin Ailey Dance Ensemble, she also wrote arrangements for Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and many other bands.

Davis, who maintains that Williams' role as a bebop pianist was more important, does express some wonder at that.

"If she was writing arrangements for Duke Ellington, who was a great arranger himself, that says something right there," he says.

Growing up in Pittsburgh, Mary Scruggs, as she was then known, began playing piano at age 4 and was doing vaudeville shows in her teens. She joined a band led by saxophonist John Williams, and the couple moved to Kansas City in the early '30s.

There, they both joined the Andy Kirk Clouds of Joy band, and Mary Lou began writing arrangements that reflected her innovative rhythmic and harmonic piano style.

Mary Lou Williams eventually followed Kirk's band to New York City, where her arrangement work flourished with many bands.

In 1946, she composed the "Zodiac Suite," which was performed in Carnegie Hall by the New York Philharmonic.

Her work as a pianist and composer-arranger continued to grow and develop. In 1977, she recorded a duet with avant-garde star Cecil Taylor. That year, she was appointed artist in residence at Duke University in North Carolina, where she remained until she died of cancer in 1981.

"Her style was always transforming," Lincoln Center's Floreska says. "She never stopped growing."

For that reason, and with the Mass and "Zodiac Suite" in mind, Floreska considers her writing as the most important aspect of her career. But she says her work in the creating of bebop is "a very close second."

The inductees will be honored at a private luncheon at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center. The hall of fame is in the Frederick P. Rose Hall there, and is free and open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays and to ticket holders for evening performances.

• Most Read
• Most E-mailed
• Latest News