The College of Wooster’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo to perform A Tribute to Mary Lou Williams with Deanna Witkowski

The College of Wooster’s Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo will perform on Friday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in Freedlander Theater (329 E. University Street). A tribute to jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams, the concert will feature guest musician Deanna Witkowski.

Williams was a jazz instrumentalist famous for arranging and composing for various groups. Early in her career, the Kansas City band leader Andy Kirk hired her to play the piano and compose and arrange music for his jazz orchestra. As her reputation spread, Williams was hired to compose and arrange for band leaders Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, and other jazz greats.  

Guest musician Witkowski is a pianist, composer, and author with experience in a variety of musical genres, including Brazilian, jazz, classical, and sacred music. Her first book, Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul (Liturgical Press), won the 2022 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Award and the 2022 Jazz Journalists Association Award for Biography of the Year. Her 2022 album, Force of Nature, reached number five on the JazzWeek nationwide radio chart and remained in the top ten most played albums on jazz radio for more than ten weeks. Known for her knowledge of Williams’s work, Witkowski has presented at the Kennedy Center, Duke University, Fordham University, and performed Williams’s compositions as a featured guest with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. She is a doctoral candidate in jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh. 

Mary Lou Williams arranged and composed music for a variety of famed jazz musicians. Photo by William P. Gottlieb.

Under the direction of Jeffrey Lindberg and Greg Slawson, the Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Combo will perform a variety of works written and arranged by Williams, including titles such as “Roll ’Em,” “Chunka Lunka,” “Shafi,” “O.W.,” “Mary’s Idea,” and “Walkin’ and Swingin’.” 

Lindberg has conducted the Wooster Jazz Ensemble since 1986. While at Wooster, Lindberg has drawn attention to lesser-known composers and exposed his students and community members to world-class soloists and compositions. Lindberg is also the co-founder and artistic director of the Chicago Jazz Orchestra, the director of the Wooster Symphony Orchestra, and teaches both jazz history and trombone at Wooster.  

Slawson is an adjunct music instructor at the College, teaching classes in jazz piano, jazz improvisation, and music technology and recording. He also edits recordings for the Department of Music and manages the recording crew. Slawson performs regularly as a freelance pianist and with various ensembles. He holds a bachelor’s degree in music and psychology from Wittenberg University and a Master of Music from the Cleveland Institute of Music.   

This concert is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Department of Music at 330-263-2419 or mpuster@wooster.edu.

Image 1: Deanna Witkowski. Photo by Erika Kapin.

Posted in News on January 29, 2024.