MARY’S IDEA

A chromatic tribute to pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams (1910-1981).

Painting on rough brown paper in his typically elemental style, Raschka offers images of two brown hands and a keyboard creating music evoked by flowing swirls and bubbles of color—adding hand-lettered comments that highlight the idea of the player’s active agency: “It was Mary’s idea to play the piano at three. It was Mary’s idea to play the piano for me.” In a biographical afterword, he traces Williams’ career from child prodigy to jazz icon, which included a turn away from performing at one point to teaching and other pursuits, and then closes with a portrait and an eloquent passage from her Jazz for the Soul album urging “attentive participation” from listeners in order to “reap the full therapeutic rewards that good music always brings to a tired, disturbed soul.” Along with offering inspiration to young musicians, and like the other tributes to jazz greats that he has been writing and illustrating since the beginning of his career, this loving remembrance captures rich hints of his subject’s joy and sound. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Elevating and evocative.