Mary Lou Williams

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Lou_Williams

Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements, and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, and LP versions).[1] Williams wrote and arranged for such bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and she was friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Tadd Dameron, Dizzy Gillespie, and many others.

Born as Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia, she grew up in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, one of eleven children. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was when she was six years old). She became a professional musician in her teens. She cited Lovie Austin as her greatest influence.[2] At the age of six, Williams was already helping to support her ten half-brothers and sisters by playing for parties. She began performing publicly at the age of seven, when she became known admiringly in Pittsburgh as "the little piano girl of East Liberty".

http://foremothers.me/2013/08/21/mary-lou-wiliams/

http://www.npr.org/programs/jazzprofiles/archive/williams_m.html

http://www.biography.com/people/mary-lou-williams-9532632

http://biography.yourdictionary.com/mary-lou-williams

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/mary-lou-williams-mn0000859820

http://www.ratical.org/MaryLouWilliams/

http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/public/page/Mary_Lou_Williams

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/mlw/intro1.html

http://newarkwww.rutgers.edu/ijs/mlw/intro2.html

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http://www.buzzfeed.com/hannahjewell/historical-women-who-gave-no-f...