Mary Lou Williams was one of the great jazz musicians of the 20th century, performing with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Thelonius Monk throughout the 1940s and 50s. As a black woman in a time when both parts of her identity were made obstacles, her accomplishments were impressive.

And yet, as she saw the wreckage of suffering and exploitation in the entertainment industry all around her and as her beloved jazz both began to lose popularity and suffer from commercialization, she had a crisis of identity and purpose. Finally, a chance encounter with an American soldier during a European tour led her to the Psalms, which led her to prayer and for a time to give up music and the life that went with it.

Mary Lou returned to New York, gave away her possessions, and took in friends with serious addictions to nurse them to health and sobriety. But then a chance encounter at a Catholic church in Harlem led to the rosary and then Fr. John Crowley, who was himself a jazz musician and fan.

Fr. Crowley advised Mary Lou to return to her music, saying: "God wants you to return to the piano. You can serve him best there for that is what you know best.” Mary Lou would become Catholic in 1957. In the latter years of her life, she dedicated herself to music and prayer. “I am praying through my fingers when I play,” she said. “I get that good ‘soul sound,’ and I try to touch people’s spirits.”

Mary Lou knew that jazz was born of the suffering of African-Americans, and now that she was Catholic she had a faith that helped suffering make sense, that made suffering redemptive. It was the perfect marriage in her mind. In 1971, Mary Lou was commissioned by the Vatican to compose a Mass for Peace, but today it is called "Mary Lou's Mass". She died in 1981 in Durham, NC, of cancer.

For much more about Mary Lou Williams, listen to American Catholic History, Episode #82.