Mary Lou Williams gets a weekly radio show

1945: Number 16 in our series of the 50 key events in the history of jazz musicIn what was a media breakthrough for an African-American woman, the pianist, composer and arranger Mary Lou Williams signed up with New York's WNEW radio station in 1945 to present a weekly show, Mary Lou Williams' Piano Workshop. Williams, who had worked with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey, espoused the controversial new jazz style of bebop, and was a friend and mentor to many of its young stars, incl...

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