Jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams' status in Durham mirrors her position in music history more generally – at once honored ...

Jazz pianist Mary Lou Williams' status in Durham mirrors her position in music history more generally – at once honored and celebrated and underappreciated. Her name is prominently attached to Duke’s Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture, and Williams is rightfully recognized for time as artist-in-residence at Duke in the Seventies and Eighties. But Williams' actual body of work is still not listened to enough: her career found her crossing paths (and occasionally, swords) with everyone from Duke Ellington to Cecil Taylor, journeying from boogie-woogie ground zero to fruitful experiments with spiritual and free jazz. So this day of Women’s History Month, we recommend not just paying lip-service to Mary Lou Williams' legacy, but actually putting on ZODIAC SUITE, ZONING, or BLACK CHRIST OF THE ANDES, and experiencing an NC legend’s greatness directly! Image: Mary Lou Williams at the piano c. 1946, William Gottlieb, public domain Alt. text: overhead shot of Mary Lou Williams seated at a piano, smiling looking off camera