JESSICA WILLIAMS
Solo Piano Concert
A NOD TO MARY LOU AND MONK
Thursday, 10/25/07, 8 pm
Nelson Music Room
$20 • $5*
Dave Brubeck calls Williams “one of the greatest jazz pianists I have ever heard,” and for this special engagement the “consistently brilliant” virtuoso (All Music Guide) plays a special show inspired by Monk and his old friend Mary Lou Williams, the fantastically expressive jazz pianist who was artist-in-residence at Duke from 1977 until her death in 1981.
The second of three Following Monk solo piano shows in the Nelson Music Room, this intimate evening brings one of the contemporary era’s finest jazz pianists to Duke for a transporting reflection on what makes art great. Interpreting selections from her own work, Monk’s work, and the work of Mary Lou Williams, the younger Williams maestro (there is no relation) turns her own skills toward this special meditation on influence.
The results promise to transfix. Because as All About Jazz sums up: “I will say on record that I think Jessica Williams is the finest pianist of our time.”
“Monk endures.”
—Jessica Williams
“[Mary Lou Williams’] advice to me about being a woman playing
this music was succinct and invaluable. This was over a quarter of a century
ago, and I can’t remember much else ... I know she said this, though: ‘Don’t
ever let anyone stop you.’”
—Jessica Williams
Jessica Williams on the web:
Funded, in part, by the Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture.