Mary Lou Willams Medley, Dirge Blues, Waltz Boogie
Sumi Tonooka Solo
Philadelphia Art Museum Jazz Series
November 7, 2012

I’m a huge fan of Mary Lou Williams who was a big influence on me. I studied with her in my formative years and being in her presence and under her tutelage was an experience that lives with me to this day.

She had a deep spiritual relationship with the music, she would have me sit next to her, and I would listen and watch her play. She was a force! During my first lesson before I touched a key on her upright piano, she made me aware whose hands had touched those keys, none other than Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker. If walls could talk!

Mary Lou Williams life covered the entire history of jazz, and she played authentically from all of those styles. She was also a founder of early Be Bop and had an ear for the Avant Guard and modern free playing. I even went to see her perform with Cecil Taylor at Carnegie Hall and attended the after party! My favorite quote about Mary Lou Williams is from Duke Ellington who said MaryLou Williams was like “soul on soul”.