Mary Lou Williams

Mary Lou Williams (born May 8, 1910, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.—died May 28, 1981, Durham, N.C.) was a jazz pianist who performed with and composed for many of the great jazz artists of the 1940s and ’50s. Williams received early instruction from her mother, a classically trained pianist. Picking out simple tunes at age two, Mary Lou was a prodigy with perfect pitch and a highly developed musical memory by the time she was four years...