My Reflections of Mary Lou Williams
by Carline Ray
When I first met the incomparable Mary Lou Williams in the late 1960s, it was my good fortune to be one of about 30 singers who were contracted to perform with her in a Carnegie Hall concert of her sacred choral music, with vocal soloists and an instrumental ensemble featuring Mary Lou at the piano. The evening’s program, entitled "Praise the Lord in Many Voices," was recorded live for release on the Avant Garde label, and I’m the proud owner of a copy of the album. It documents my direct introduction to the great lady of the jazz piano.
During a break in one of the rehearsals, I made it my business to introduce myself to Mary Lou because we had a mutual friend whose name I mentioned. We hit it off right away, and during the course of conversation I found out that we were both under the same sign--Taurus. She proceeded to tell me about a recording project that she had been working on, but had quit halfway through because funds ran out. Now she was ready to finish her project, and asked if I could help her find some singers.
Her wish was my command, and I was able to come up with three very talented colleagues who were as excited as I was to work with Mary Lou Williams. During rehearsals she was ever so patient, making sure that we understood what she wanted in any given spot, and she gave me the added assignment of two vocal solos, one being her setting of The Lord’s Prayer, and the other telling the story of Lazarus. The completed project was her jazz mass "Music for Peace," which had been commissioned by the Secretary of the Pontifical Commission on Justice and Peace in Rome.
When the late, great dancer/choreographer Alvin Ailey heard the recording of "Mary Lou’s Mass" (as it came to be known), he was inspired to choreograph it for his wonderful dance company, and Mary Lou couldn’t have been happier. Thus began the collaboration of two of the most unique human beings on the planet. Geniuses at work! The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater kept its interpretation of the Mass active in its repertory for two or three years. The critics raved to no end. I would like to quote what one critic had to say, and I think he summed it up beautifully. His name was Hubert Saal from Newsweek, and I quote: "The Williams score turns out to be almost an encyclopedia of black music, richly represented from spirituals to bop to rock. Often individual sections are microcosms of jazz. Never is it music that calls attention to itself. It reflects the self-effacing style of Mary Lou Williams, both as a musician and as a woman, as well as the persuasiveness of her spiritual conviction."
This is what I loved and admired about her. She was most definitely about the music and getting people, especially young people, in touch with their roots, lifting their spirits and giving them hope for their futures through the music. She always enjoyed working with young people wherever she could gather them and teach them some of her Mass, especially in her Harlem neighborhood.
In 1978, Mary Lou was invited to perform at the First Women’s Jazz Festival in Kansas City, and here I was again, swept up in the whirlwind of wonderful music making, Mary Lou Williams style. I served as bassist and vocal soloist on chosen segments of her Mass, which was performed in a local church, and the big jazz concert in a local auditorium turned out well. I had never seen such a gathering of female musicians in one place up to that time. It was quite something, and the networking was first-rate. Some other outstanding performers that year were Betty Carter, Melba Liston, and Marian McPartland, to name a few.
In my wildest dreams, it never occurred to me that I would ever have the privilege of meeting Mary Lou in person, much less working with her or hearing her play in her inimitable fashion. She was my number one role model, mentor, close friend, and adopted big sister. I have saved little notes and postcards that she would send from time to time in her travels. Now, thanks to Dr. Billy Taylor, we can enjoy the Mary Lou Williams Women’s Jazz Festival at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts every spring for many years to come in Washington, DC, and enjoy all of the wonderful talent yet to be heard.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts