Photo Essay of Mary Lou Williams

By: Katherine Landergan
Chuck Stewart, a photographer, had the opportunity to photograph a recording session with Mary Lou Williams at Old Capitol Records Studio, in New York City. The musical recordings were never released to the public.
“She was already a legend-she could do no wrong,” Stewart said. “Mary Lou Williams was very low key, very quiet. She knew what she wanted.”

Stewart captivates his perception of Williams in this series of eight photos. These images suggest that Williams was a patient, introverted woman who had a passion for musical composition. In the essay, she quietly explains to her colleague (with a slight smile on her face) how she would like the drums to be played. In the other photos, she sits away from the rest of her colleagues, and seems to be deeply thinking about how to rework the arrangements.

The year was 1957. Earlier in the decade, Williams toured both England and France; the two tours were extensively covered in the European jazz press. A year before these photos were taken, Williams underwent a spiritual conversion to Catholicism, and gave up playing jazz to focus on her spirituality. Then in 1957 she played with Dizzy Gillespie at the Newport Jazz festival. To the public’s dismay, Williams performed quite infrequently for the following ten years.

Also featured in this photo essay is Melba Liston, a female jazz composer, who earlier in her career played in the high profile bands of Count Basie and Dizzie Gillespie. In his description of the essay, Stewart notes that Liston arranged all the pieces in the recording session. The other two individuals featured are drummer Ed Thigpen and Roulette Records producer Rudy Traynor.

Here is the link to the photo essay- hope you enjoy it!

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/mlw/stewart.html

Works Cited:

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/mlw/intro3.html