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 1926-30
She marries John WIlliams, a saxophonist and carnival band member,
playing at the time with Terence Holder, essentially a Kansas
City blues band. In 1929 Andy
Kirk takes over Holder's band, and Mary Lou becomes the deputy
pianist and arranger.
1942
Williams moves on to settle in New York and plays in a small group
with Shorty Baker (trumpet), who becomes her second husband; Art
Blakey works in the band for a spell. She works also as staff
arranger for Ellington.
1950s
Mary Lou moves to Europe, settling in France and England, from 1952
to 1954, and then retires from the jazz scene until 1957.
Mary Lou Williams was one of the finest,
yet most undersung, jazz pianists of her time. She was
able to develop her style as the jazz world developed, and so she
could move from Kansas City pianist
with Andy Kirk, to confidant of Bud Powell,
to flirting with free jazz forms
in the 1960s and duetting with Cecil Taylor in the late-1970s. Like
her great friend Duke Ellington
(she played at his funeral) she had a broad perspective, and could
never be classified under one jazz genre.
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