This feature is derived from KNKX's Tree of Jazz, taking you through the eras, from the roots to the new budding leaves, with a weekly deep dive into iconic artists, albums, and instruments.
On a summer morning in 1958, a city block in Harlem filled with some of the finest jazz musicians of the era, many, perhaps, just off stage from late-night sessions that lasted till dawn. They had gathered for what became known as "A Great Day in Harlem," a photo commissioned by Esquire magazine.
Among the crowd of mostly Black men, a few white men, and neighborhood children, stood only three women: a singer and two instrumentalists. Who were these three musicians? And how did they each leave their mark on the music?
Mary Lou Williams
One of the women in the photo is pianist Mary Lou Williams. To her left is the eccentric genius piano player Thelonious Monk, but Williams had stood alongside jazz’s leading men for decades before this particular day. Williams helped shape the sound of swing orchestras like Duke Ellington’s with expert compositions and arrangements, and her harmonically adventurous playing moved the music towards the bebop era.
Beyond her influence as a composer and pianist, she was known for her generosity. In New York City, she mentored musicians like Charlie Parker and Monk, and supported them through the tough times of poverty and addiction. William’s guiding light helped the virtuoso piano player Bud Powell so much that she was in the artwork for his 1950 album. Williams sits next to Powell on the piano bench; her face mostly obscured by sheet music; she was the woman behind the music. According to pianist and biographer Deanna Witkowski, Powell went to Williams for music lessons, she got him gigs and soothed him during mental breakdowns.
She later founded the Bel Canto Foundation to assist struggling artists and ran thrift shops in Brooklyn to support it.
“Mary Lou Williams cared for the poor and chose voluntary poverty in order to rehabilitate the sick in her community, especially jazz musicians,” Witkowski wrote.
Exhausted, Williams stepped away from music in the mid-1950s, spending time abroad and converting to Catholicism. She returned to playing in 1957 and released music again in 1964 with Black Christ of the Andes and later Mary Lou’s Mass. These sacred jazz works are filled with swing, choral movements, and spiritual depth. She continued recording in '70s with the groove-rich albums Zoning and Free Spirits and remained a lauded contributor to the music until she died in 1981.
Marian McPartland
Marian McPartland, the other woman instrumentalist, stood right next to Williams that morning in Harlem. When McPartland moved to New York City, Williams was among the first people she sought out.
She had a very different background, but shared similar drive and passion for music. McPartland, a white woman from the U.K., grew up in a household that disapproved of her love for jazz, but her enthusiasm and commitment to the music never stopped.
She became a commanding presence on and off the bandstand. Pianist Jon Weber recalled that “she was the strongest person in the room… all eyes were on her and she was in control, what’s she going to do?”
McPartland often heard she “played like a man.” In the 1950s, she challenged the notion, writing: “Can’t we women make our own contribution to jazz by playing like women, but still capturing the essential elements of jazz; good beat, good ideas, honesty and true feeling?"
Her now out-of-print album Now’s the Time brought together an all-women band featuring Lynne Milano, Mary Osborne, Vi Redd, and Dottie Dodgion; a rare documentation of women with long jazz careers who were seldom recorded.
McPartland also hosted Piano Jazz (with its theme song called “Kaleidoscope”) on NPR beginning in 1978 and contributed to jazz publications and educational materials. Her interviews, combined with duet performances, revealed deep connections with her guests. Many considered her a peer or mentor. Today, those archives remain intimate documents of some of jazz’s most impactful musicians, many of whom are no longer with us. McPartland retired from the program in 2011 and died in 2013.
Maxine Sullivan
In 1936, Maxine Sullivan made a weekend trip to New York City on a friend’s suggestion that her joyful, clear singing belonged on a bigger stage. It turned into a decades-long career. Sullivan landed a gig at the Onyx Club, and her popularity soared in 1937 with a swing version of the Scottish folk song “Loch Lomond.”
She broke barriers as the first Black woman to host a coast-to-coast radio show. She was also the first to sing “Darn That Dream” in Swingin’ the Dream, a jazz adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and appeared in several films during the 1940s.
By the summer of 1958, when A Great Day in Harlem was taken, Sullivan was still performing, though her focus had shifted to her family and community in the Bronx. She and her husband, stride pianist Cliff Jackson, raised a family, hosted block parties and jam sessions, and ran a boardinghouse for musicians. Sullivan also served on the local school board.
She sang throughout her life, balancing music with public service. In 1975, she opened The House That Jazz Built, a community center for jazz education, in memory of her late husband. She would continue to sing and be a community ambassador for jazz until she died in 1987.
This story comes from the Women’s History Month (March) episodes of the Tree of Jazz. Listen to the past two weeks of Tree of Jazz On-Demand and hear deep dives like this each week on the Tree of Jazz, on air and online every Sunday from 3-6 p.m. PT.
