Mary Lou Williams was a force for jazz, a force for compassion, and a driving force behind the start of the Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in the 1960s.
Pittsburgh was very important to Mary Lou Williams, and plays an important part in a new biography about her musical, personal and spiritual journey.
Pianist and composer Deanna Witkowski is the author of “Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul,” which is just hitting bookstores and online retail, now.
We first had a long chat with Deanna back in October of 2019, which was not quite a year after her introduction to playing in Pittsburgh for a December 8th 2018 concert at the Hillman Center at Shady Side Academy.
Deanna will have her first “Official” event as a book signing, performance and conversation at Con Alma, Downtown, Thursday September 16th.. Readings, conversation, and a trio with Deanna on piano, Paul Thompson, bass and Thomas Wendt, drums.
In the days months and years since that first interview, we have all had changes, especially during COVID-19. For Deanna, it has led her to finish this well regarded book about a jazz icon written for a broad audience, her enrollment in a doctoral program in Jazz Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, and leaving her longtime home in New York City and moving to Pittsburgh, full-time.
Our chat about the new Mary Lou Williams book is wide ranging and delves into Mary Lou’s music and relationships, and also into how much Mary Lou cared about Pittsburgh and her family and roots in the Steel City.
Also - we talk about the amazing pictures of Mary Lou Williams in the the William P Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress. It is a treasure trove of amazing photographs, now available to the public - and includes shots of Mary Lou’s piano, which is now on display in Pittsburgh at the Heinz History Center.
This is a week for more homecomings - guitarist Andy Bianco is back from New York City for a 3 club visit, joined by another Pittsburgh area native, drummer Paul Wells.
And pianist Dave Lalama (West Alaquipppa), came back to town, also joined by Paul Wells on drums.
It’s the sort of thing that happens, now, in the jazz scene that is Pittsburgh. There’s no place like home.
We also chat with vocalist Anita Levels, a native of New Orleans who now considers Pittsburgh home. Anita will join vibraphonist Tubby Daniels as a part of the Monroeville Jazz Festival, September 4th at the Tall Trees Amphitheatre in the Monroeville Community Park.
The Scene - Thursday at 6, Friday and Saturday at noon, Sunday at 5 on WZUM.
Milt Orent, Mary Lou Williams, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gilespie - at Mary Lou’s Baldwin upright piano at her apartment in New York, 1947. Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress
Dizzy Gillespie Mary Lou Williams Tadd Dameron Hank Jones Milt Orent Dixie Bailey and Jack Teagarden Mary Lou Williams apartment New York NY ca Aug 1947 William P Gottlieb Collection, Library of Congress`
Deanna Witkowski, Mary Lou Williams
Anita Levels, Tubby Daniels