Mary Lou Williams Transcriptions

Biography of Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger whose career spanned the Kansas City swing, bebop, and sacred jazz eras, making her a mentor to legends like Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie . A child prodigy, she became the star arranger and pianist for Andy Kirk's Twelve Clouds of Joy in the 1930s, composing hits like "Walkin' and Swingin'," and later wrote major works for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman . In her later years, she composed pioneering liturgical jazz, performed the first jazz mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and served as an artist-in-residence at Duke University, leaving a profound educational legacy .