Read more
"This biography presents the life and music of the pianist, composer, and arranger Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981), a talented and versatile jazz artist well versed in most of the emerging styles in jazz's evolution. Williams wrote and arranged for the likes of Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and was a friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and other stars of the bebop scene. Tammy Kernodle draws on extensive interviews, letters, oral histories, and meticulous research, bringing rich biographical detail together with incisive commentary on Williams's music, performances, and recordings. This deeply contextualized portrait chronicles Williams's impoverished upbringing in Pittsburgh, where she began performing publicly at the age of 6, through her harsh life on the road and rise to fame in the 1930s. In later years, Williams's powerful sacred jazz compositions and dedicated support to help rehabilitate jazz musicians struggling with addiction contributed further to her lasting influence as a composer and educator"--
List of contents
Cover
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of illustrations
Acknowledgments
Prefae to the New Edition
Introduction
1. I Dream a World
2. Take Me to Froggy Bottom: The Early Musical Years
3. From East Liberty (Pittsburgh) to Beale Street (Memphis) to Eighteenth and Vine (Kansas City)
4. Until the Real Thing Comes Along: The Andy Kirk Years (1931- 42)
5. How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
6. Love on a Two-Way Street: Barney Josephson and Moe Asch
7. Under the Signs of the Zodiac
8. The Calm before the Storm
9. The Crossroads
10. The Long Journey Back Home
11. What a Difference a Day Makes
12. A Season of Change
13. The Fruits of One's Labor
Notes
Bibliography
Selected Discography
Index
Back cover
About the author
Tammy L. Kernodle is a professor of musicology at Miami University of Ohio. She served as associate editor of the three volume
Encyclopedia of African American Music and as a senior editor for the revision of
New Grove Dictionary of American Music.
