Harlem Nocturne (24 page)

There are many examples of Mary Lou Williams's musical legacy. The example she set was of someone who was constantly in the process of learning, evolving, even as she remained
grounded in the tradition that claimed her. Her music carried and contained both personal and collective histories, and it acted as a conduit to create a community and to put listeners in touch with aspects of the divine. Even for the secular among us, there is no question that there is something deeply spiritual in her music. It isn't ethereal or otherworldly. Instead, her music is rooted and grounded in the specific sonic histories of African American music, putting listeners in touch with something that is both deeply internal and larger than themselves.

Many artists continue to be influenced by her music. Women artists, in particular, have found inspiration in Williams's example: in her insistence on making art and on being taken seriously as a contributor to musical culture, her leadership, and her sacrifice of celebrity in favor of artistic integrity. Her musical inheritance has been nurtured in a number of settings. The Mary Lou Williams Collective, led by Geri Allen, an arm of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, is one of the most exciting incarnations. The Collective is devoted to performing and recording Williams's music and has recorded and released, for example,
Zodiac Suite: Revisited
. The Collective does not replicate Williams's music exactly as she recorded it, however. Allen, herself a highly accomplished, world-renowned musician, composer, and arranger, brings her sensitivity, intellect, and own spiritual strivings to Williams's music and is often called upon to perform tributes to her as a solo artist. In addition, she played Williams in the Robert Altman film
Kansas City
.

Other artists have also devoted their time and attention to ensuring that Williams's music is familiar to contemporary
artists. They often work without media attention on grant support. Some of them, such as pianist Bertha Hope and bassist Carline Ray, knew and were mentored by Williams. Another pianist, Amina Claudine Myers, who is also an organist, has a style that is deeply soulful with a strong left hand, and therefore shares much with Williams. Vibraphonist Cecilia Smith has arranged Williams's compositions in order to present them to newer audiences. In honor of the centenary anniversary of Williams's birth, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra devoted two evenings to arrangements and compositions by Williams.

It is not surprising that many of the earliest efforts to recognize and honor Mary Lou Williams are to be found under the rubric of “Women and” or “Women in” Jazz. The music festivals, panels, and academic works that first focused on Williams tended to do so because they had too often ignored the work of women and the force of gender in the analyses and materials that they made available. At first these projects were marked by efforts to challenge the canon, to search for foremothers, to rewrite history, and to recognize the role that sexism played in these artists' lives and in the failure to give them their due in death. Ironically, Williams herself never cared to be classified as a “woman” jazz artist. She felt this kind of categorizing would greatly diminish her work and her impact.
⁴

Pearl Primus, Ann Petry, and Mary Lou Williams continued to lead productive lives well into their seventies and eighties. Their commitment to their art, their passion for justice, and their concern for humanity were consistent throughout their
lives. Their courage and creativity continue to inspire. Fortunately, each left a body of work and personal archive for future generations to study, learn from, and build upon.

Unlike so many women artists before them, they did not die in obscurity or poverty. Their legacies have not been ignored or forgotten. In the 1940s, each of them was committed to a vision of America, indeed of the world, as a place where all people had access to opportunity and possibility. Each of them exposed the limits of American democracy as it was practiced during their time, and each devoted herself and her work to building a movement for social change. At times, their sense of our nation's possibility was severely limited by the continued injustice they witnessed, but they all believed in the necessity of fighting to build a better day, to bring the dawn to new generations. The progressive political atmosphere they inhabited and helped to define set the foundation for and gave birth to a younger generation that emerged in the 1960s. And while the newer generation separated itself—the New from the Old Left; the Black Power movement from the civil rights movement; second-wave feminism from both the Old Left and the civil rights movement; black feminists from Black Power and the white women's movement—they all reached back and created a place to recognize and celebrate these women.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

 

T
he idea for this book was born at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in 2001. Much of the manuscript was written at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Writers and Scholars in 2006–2007. I am especially indebted to these two branches of the New York Public Library for inspiring and nurturing
Harlem Nocturne
. Howard Dodson, Diana Lachatanere, Steven G. Fullwood, Mary Year-wood, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad at the Schomburg, and Jean Strouse, Adriana Nova, and the wonderful staff of Cullman Center, all deserve a special thank-you.

I am forever indebted to my colleagues and students at Columbia University. Shawn Mendoza and Sharon Harris offered tremendous support throughout the process of research and writing. Conversations with Robin D. G. Kelley and the late Manning Marable greatly helped me conceptualize and focus the project in its earliest stages. Robert O'Meally, Brent Hayes Edwards, George Lewis, and John Swzed offered advice, shared research tips, and listened whenever I needed to talk. Marcellus Blount, Fredrick Harris, Kellie Jones, Alondra Nelson, Saidiya Hartman, Ann Douglass, James Shapiro, Steven Gregory, Aaron Johnson, and Jean Howard provided support and laughter
throughout the entire process. Ann Douglass continues to be an intellectual idol. I am grateful for her model and for her friendship. Joanna Dees and Victoria Phillips Geduld, both of whom were graduate students at Columbia while I worked on
Harlem Nocturne
, were generous with their research. Their forthcoming critical dance histories are going to shape the way we think about modern dance.

All members of the Jazz Study Group constituted my major intellectual community. Maxine Gordon, Diedra Harris-Kelley, Jacqui Malone, C. Daniel Dawson, Sherrie Tucker, Guthrie Ramsey, Penny Von-Eschen, and Salim Washington generously offered of their time and their knowledge.

Bill Santin and Marilyn Pettit at the Columbia University Archives and Michael Ryan, Director of Columbia University's Rare Book and Manuscript Library, were especially helpful as I sought to reconstruct Pearl Primus's time at Columbia and searched for a number of rare photographs. The research for this book could not have been completed without the assistance of archivists at the following institutions: the Howard Gottlieb Archival Research Center at Boston University, the American Dance Festival Archives at Duke University, the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

I have been blessed with a bevy of talented, meticulous, and intelligent research assistants: Kadji Amin, Courtney Diamond, Tahirah Hendricks-Keene, Allison Hamilton, Leslie McCracken, Patricia Lespinasse, Nydia Swaby, and the intrepid Marsha Jean-Charles. Thank you all.

I was especially fortunate to have access to relatives of Williams, Primus, and Petry. Andara Primus-King, niece of Pearl Primus; Bobbie Ferguson, niece of Mary Lou Williams; Elisabeth Petry, daughter of Ann Petry; and Ginny Neel, daughter-in-law of Alice Neel, each made time to speak with me and answer my questions. Elisabeth Petry was especially patient with my numerous requests.

Father Peter O'Brien, Director of the Mary Lou Williams Foundation, taught me more about Mary Lou Williams and her contributions to American music than anyone else. His devotion to Williams's legacy is unparalleled and I am forever grateful to him for all of his assistance and generosity. Geri Allen helped me hear, understand, and better appreciate the complexity of Williams's compositions. Conversations with Cecilia Smith were also very helpful. Through two long telephone interviews, Gray Weingarten, a longtime, close friend of Mary Lou Williams, nourished me with stories about Mary Lou Williams.

The Black Women's Intellectual and Cultural History Collective (BWICH) allowed me to workshop portions of the manuscript and to talk about issues related to black women's intellectual history with a group of stellar scholars. Thadious Davis, Cheryl Wall, and Barbara Savage gave me extensive and helpful comments. Barbara Savage has gone above and beyond anything I could have expected. She read the entire manuscript, helped me think through thorny issues, and lent an ear, a shoulder to cry on, and a lot of love and laughter throughout every phase of this project. Her intelligence, her kindness, and her assistance are among my greatest blessings.

Daphne Brooks, Carla Kaplan, Salamishah Tillet, Jerry Watts, Cornel West, the late Richard Long, Louis Massiah, Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, Gerald Horne, and Tammy Kernodle have written books and articles or made documentary films that were of great importance to me as I wrote this book. Each of them also offered support, shared information, and helped me in my thinking about history, culture, and politics. I have learned a great deal from each of them, and my book has benefited greatly from the material they made available to me.

CT Powell, Henry Rock, Vera Wells, and Khalilah Boone each introduced me to people who knew Primus, Williams, or Petry. They held the keys that opened very important doors. Deb Willis deserves a special thank you.

My agent Loretta Barrett is a constant source of support and encouragement. Loretta introduced the project to Lara Heimert at Basic Books. Lara has been everything one could wish for in an editor: intelligent, sensitive, insightful, and patient. She worked closely with me through a number of drafts and I learned to trust her eye and her judgment. It has been an honor to work with her and everyone at Basic Books. I am so pleased
Harlem Nocturne
found a home there. Katy O'Donnell, Assistant Editor at Basic, gave all of her attention and a tremendous amount of time to the penultimate draft of the book. Katherine H. Streckfus is an ideal copy editor, and Rachel King deftly ushered the manuscript through its final stages with grace and ease. Melissa Runstrom has also been very attentive and committed to this project.

My beautiful mother, to whom this book is dedicated, has always read everything I have ever written. She continues to do
so. As I wrote this book I thought often of stories that she has shared with me throughout the years. Her memories of World War II, of black soldiers, my father's time in the navy, and forties fashion, music, and dance helped to shape my sense of the sound, look, and setting of
Harlem Nocturne
. She and my “sister” Imani Perry are companions to my soul. Imani's published writings, our daily correspondence, and rare long walks shape my thinking every single day. I am grateful to her for reading portions of this manuscript and for offering advice whenever I requested it. Our friendship is a place where it is safe to be vulnerable and where I always feel understood. My grandniece Karen Phyliss Lindsay and cousin Ann Carson are wonderful inspirations to me.

This book took much longer to complete than I expected. During the course of research and writing, I experienced a few life-changing events. I lost my cherished aunt, Eartha Mordecai, and my beloved big sister, Myra Lindsay, both to lung cancer. Their deaths sent me reeling, but my memory of them, their impeccable style and strength, and their never-ending support and love continue to sustain me. Also, nieces Karen Lindsay and Molaika Motley were taken away from us much too soon. During this period I also met, fell in love with, and married Obery M. Hendricks Jr. His courage and brilliance inspire me on a daily basis. In addition to his love, Obery also gave me the gift of family: daughters Tahirah M. Hendricks-Keene and Serena Kumara Grant, granddaughters Mariame and Diata Canon, and sister and brother-in-law Linda Hendricks-Motley and Dennis Motley. What a blessing you all have been.

APPENDIX A