orig. Mary Elfrieda Scruggs
born May 8, 1910, Atlanta, Ga., U.S.
died May 28, 1981, Durham, N.C.
U.S. pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.
A child prodigy, she had her professional debut with big bands at age 12. Beginning in 1929, Williams wrote arrangements for many swing bands, including those of Andy Kirk (1898–1992) and Zodiac Suite was performed by the New York Philharmonic in 1946. A pianist with strong roots in the blues and early jazz , Williams embraced the innovations of bebop and later free jazz, performing with a diverse array of jazz musicians, including {{link=Gillespie, Dizzy">Dizzy Gillespie and Cecil Taylor (b. 1933). In the 1960s and '70s she composed a number of liturgical pieces for jazz ensembles, including Music for Peace (1970), popularly known as "Mary Lou's Mass."