Winner of the 2022 Jazz Journalists Association Award for Biography/Autobiography of the Year! Learn more at www.jjajazzawards.org/2022-winners-in-jazz-journalism/#biography
Read the first 29 pages of Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul at litpress.org/Products/GetSample/6401/9780814664018
Please indicate at checkout as to whether or not you would like Deanna to inscribe your book copy to a particular person.
Your purchase also includes a downloadable audio file of "Wide Open Window," recorded on her Wide Open Window album.
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You can also purchase Force of Nature (MCG Jazz), Deanna's bold, new recording featuring the adventurous music of Mary Lou Williams, at www.deannawitkowski.com/store/p/force-of-nature OR at mcgjazz.bandcamp.com/album/force-of-nature
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Testimonials:
"A beautifully written and expertly researched biography of one of the most fascinating Catholic artists of our time. Deanna Witkowski, a musician herself, brings to life a whole era in this engrossing new book about art, music, love, perseverance and faith."
--James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray (and former guest chaplain on The Colbert Report)
"Deanna Witkowski’s Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul is a thrilling account of the extraordinary life of a brilliantly successful African American Jazz artist who became a devout Catholic—and it is so much more besides. A meticulously researched and well-told tale, Mary Lou Williams is rife with cliffhangers, foreshadowing, tragic losses, psychic and religious visions, and unexpected intrusions of grace. It is also, to this reader’s delight, a labor of love."
Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, author of Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith
"In this brief biography, Deanna Witkowski retrieves for Catholics, African American Catholics in particular, the life of jazz virtuoso Mary Lou Williams. Witkowski offers readers a glimpse into the inner life of a ‘musical contemplative,’ who was one of the great jazz pianists, arrangers, and composers of the 20th century. Although befriended, encouraged, and counseled by several priests and women religious, Mary Lou Williams remains unknown among most African American Catholics. This contribution to the People of God series provides an opportunity for us to discover and appreciate the musical talent and spiritual commitment of one of our own."
Dr. M. Shawn Copeland, Professor Emerita, Department of Theology, Boston College
NOTE: Book is available here for US customers only. To order directly from the publisher, visit litpress.org/Products/6401/Mary-Lou-Williams.
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PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN: 9780814664018, 6401
eISBN: 9780814664254, E6425
Details: 160 pgs, 5 3/8 x 8 1/4
Publication Date: 08/15/2021
DESCRIPTION:
In Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul, Deanna Witkowski brings a fresh perspective to the life and music of the legendary jazz pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams (1910-81). As a fellow jazz pianist-composer, adult convert to Catholicism, and liturgical composer, Witkowski offers unique insight gleaned from a twenty-year journey with Williams as her chosen musical and spiritual mentor. Viewing Williams’s musical and corporal acts of mercy as part of a singular effort to create community no matter the context, Witkowski examines how Williams created networks of support and friendship through her decades long letter correspondence with various women religious, her charitable work, and her tireless efforts to perform jazz in churches, community centers, concert halls, and schools. Throughout this fascinating story told with equal amounts of deep love and scholarly research, Witkowski illumines Williams’s passionate mantra that “jazz is healing to the soul.”
Deanna Witkowski is an award-winning jazz pianist and composer who recently relocated to Mary Lou Williams’s hometown of Pittsburgh after spending twenty-three years as a New Yorker. Her seven recordings include the forthcoming Force of Nature (MCG Jazz) featuring all Williams compositions, and Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns (Tilapia Records), featuring 14 jazz arrangements of classic hymns alongside a companion sheet music book. As a frequent guest music leader, Witkowski has shared her original liturgical jazz in over one hundred churches throughout the United States. She has lectured and performed the music of Mary Lou Williams at venues including the Kennedy Center, Duke University, Fordham University, and with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She is currently a PhD student in jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh.
Includes unlimited streaming of
Wide Open Window
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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Deanna Witkowski Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Force of Nature, Deanna's bold, new recording featuring the adventurous music of Mary Lou Williams, is available at mcgjazz.bandcamp.com/album/force-of-nature
