My Life As Spirit: Mary Lou Williams, A Willing Mentor

by Radha Botofasina

Most mentors are several decades older than their mentee. In my early twenties, Mary Lou Williams became my first piano mentor. One warm evening, I was walking though Greenwich Village in Manhattan. There was an open air dinner café, Barney Joseph’s Jazz Cookery, featuring a jazz duo with a bassist and a piano player. The chords I heard made me stop and stare at the African-American lady playing the piano. After her set, I approached her, asking, “Can I take lessons with you?”

Mary Lou Williams wrote her telephone number and address for me, and I called to schedule a lesson, the next day. She lived on Hamilton Place on Sugar Hill in Harlem in a one-bedroom apartment with simple decor. A small upright piano dominated one wall of the modest living room. She had me play something and gave me her honest opinion, “You play African in your left hand.”

Before the lesson was over, she wrote a series of chords and voicings on manuscript paper for me to learn, using the tune Jeepers Creepers as a road map. She charged me ten dollars and that was the only time I paid for a lesson with her. Mary Lou saw something in me that I did not see in myself. Perhaps, it was my determination to get the music right, more than innate talent.

Mary Lou recounted stories about musicians who came to her apartment to hang out and play music. Her hands moved so fast across the keyboard that they looked like they were standing still. She was enormously creative in her compositions and had recorded over 100 albums as an accompanist and leader.

One outstanding story was about her a liturgical mass composed in tribute to Saint Martin De Porres, the black Christ of the Andes. Martin’s mother was African Panamanian, and his father was Spanish. Before he was 13, Martin was a doctor’s apprentice. He became a barber in the 16th century tradition of extracting teeth and draining abscesses. He accepted the call to monastic life and entered the Dominican Order of priests, even though the Peruvian law forbade people of color from becoming priests. Martin was allowed to enter the priesthood and work in the infirmary, where he said, “I cure them, but God heals them.”

Without complaint, Martin did janitorial work assigned to him at the monastery. He lived in humble quarters near the kitchen. He was a vegetarian, eating only potatoes, and he was seen levitating in intense prayer. He had the ability to bi-locate, appearing in other countries far from Peru.

Mary loved St. Martin de Porres. When she began composing the mass dedicated to him, she said she lost consciousness. Amazingly, the composition was written on manuscript paper when her consciousness returned. A grant from philanthropist Doris Duke enabled Mary to hire commercial session singers to sing the vocal parts. It was a beautiful homage to St. Martin. Mary was a Catholic convert, but she was mundane and spiritual.