Mary Lou Williams

Many people forget that Jazz, no matter what form it takes, must come from the heart as well as the mind.

I heard someone say ‘What’s that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let’s get started.’

I never had a chance to play with dolls like other kids. I started working when I was 6 years old.

Invest yourself in everything you do. There’s fun in being serious.

For years the trio did nothing but play for musicians and other hip people. We starved.

I adore extravagance but I abhor waste.

I don’t have a definition of Jazz. You’re just supposed to know it when you hear it.

When Hank Jones had his night off, I would get somebody to take my place as intermission pianist and I’d play the show with Ella, so I would get a chance to play with Ray Brown and Charlie Smith as well.

You hear about the Duke Ellingtons, the Jimmie Luncefords, and the Fletcher Hendersons, but people sometimes forget that jazz was not only built in the minds of the great ones, but on the backs of the ordinary ones.

I was first awakened to musical exploration by Dizzy and Bird.

I thought I had swell ideas and wonderful musicians but no one else did.

You have to sound sad first, then maybe later you can sound good.

The wonderful thing about Jazz is its willingness to take chances.

I think the idea of a love song has changed. Most of the love songs we all loved as kids would be classified as funeral dirges now, you know, really super slow. I think nowadays the ballad has changed. It can have some up-tempo, some drums, some other things. ‘Forever’ would still be considered a ballad, I guess, but the tempo is probably more of a mid-tempo. The content is love song. I don’t know how to write anything else.

Jazz is not to be sliced into bites by mass marketing geniuses who assume we are mindless cattle.

Music allows the great opportunity to play with people you love.

I find my inspiration in myself.