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Mary Lou Williams, third from left, with friends in her New York apartment (photo: Alamy).
In 1954 in Paris, the pianist Mary Lou Williams walked off the jazz bandstand at age 44, suddenly and at the very height of her fame. She had finally succumbed to her midlife panic and bouts of self-loathing that were enough to make just about anyone want simply to exit the stage. Thus began a chain of events leading to her conversion to Catholicism and to a new life’s purpose in composing jazz Masses worthy of performance at the Vatican. More than this, Williams came to write “Mary Lou’s Mass” to capture her feeling of suffering and its apotheosis. She was helped in this mission by a young Jesuit priest and jazz devotee, Peter O’Brien, who became her manager, confidant, lifelong friend and eventually her archivist.