I was 23 years old, looked 18, and wearing my black suit and clerical collar on that night when I first walked into The Hickory House. It was a large, wide, high-ceilinged, oblong room which had become largely a place to present piano trios. They served good steaks. These were cooked over smoking hickory logs. Duke Ellington was a frequent visitor. He liked the steaks. Sometimes he liked the piano players.
Nervous but determined, I slid up onto one of those high bar stools immediately to the right of the keyboard.
| “The emotional experience of the music, and of Mary Lou herself, was so strong that my life at once took on a permanent new direction.” |
The music poured from the piano. An authoritative African-American woman in early middle age was playing, eyes mostly closed, her face registering every nuance of the music she was creating, back straight, her hands lying flat as they moved over the keys. She was wearing a royal blue chiffon gown of cocktail length, gathered at the shoulders. Her arms were bare. She had a beautiful throat and neck, good collarbones and a dark brown face rising up from a strong chin to high cheekbones. Her mouth was well shaped and soft and at times broke into a brief radiant smile when she achieved a particular musical passage. The smile never interfered with the concentration. There was nothing theatrical about her. I simply knew that I was in the presence of someone of the highest magnitude.
The emotional experience of the music, and of Mary Lou herself, was so strong that my life at once took on a permanent new direction. There was no confusion or doubt in me and although I could not know the full consequences of that nights depth of feeling, I had found my purpose.
Link (here) to the full article by Rev. Peter F. O'Brien, S.J.
Photo from 1971 of Fr. O'Brien and Mary Lou Williams
Loyola Jesuit Seminary (Shrub Oak) - Run by the Jesuit Fathers; operated from 1955 to 1973.
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