NTS aired an episode dedicated to the music of Mary Lou Williams on 22 October 2023. Mary Lou Williams has been played on NTS over 160 times, featured on 111 episodes and was first played on 30 January 2015.

Mary Lou Williams (May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger. She was born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. As a very young child she taught herself to play the piano (her first public performance was at the age of six). She became a professional musician in her teens.

In 1930, she joined…