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Adventurous, engaging jazz that heals the soul.

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Mary Lou Williams: Music for the Soul

Deanna brings a fresh perspective to the life and music of the legendary jazz pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams throughout this fascinating story told with equal amounts of deep love and scholarly research.

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Force of Nature

Deanna’s bold, new recording brings Mary Lou Williams’s forward-thinking, experimental compositions to a new generation of fans.

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Makes the Heart to Sing: Jazz Hymns

Featuring 14 jazz arrangements of standard hymn tunes as performed by the Deanna Witkowski Trio. A companion sheet music book includes fully notated piano scores and lead sheets.

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Quotes

Deanna Witkowski is a powerhouse of a pianist.
-Paul Abella, What’s New on WDCB

It’s awfully early in the year to be talking about the best jazz albums of 2022, but this is a gem.
-New York Music Daily

“Mary Lou Williams’ compositions sparkle and jump under Witkowski’s fingers and her love for the music illuminates every unexpected harmonic turn, bluesy melody and structural innovation.”
-John Chacona, Let’s Call This

“Witkowski is an astonishingly versatile bandleader, capable of playing lush mainstream music one minute and moving comfortably into avant-garde waters the next.”

－Time Out New York

“One of the best of the new generation of jazz piano players.”

－Jazz Journal International

“If, among contemporary pianists, Brad Mehldau and Bill Charlap represent the gold standard, then Deanna Witkowski deservedly ranks as their sterling sister.”

－JazzTimes

“A meticulously researched and well-told tale, Mary Lou Williams is rife with cliffhangers, foreshadowing, tragic losses, psychic and religious visions, and unexpected intrusions of grace. It is also, to this reader’s delight, a labor of love.”

– Angela Alaimo O’Donnell, author of Flannery O’Connor: Fiction Fired by Faith

"A beautifully written and expertly researched biography of one of the most fascinating Catholic artists of our time. Deanna Witkowski, a musician herself, brings to life a whole era in this engrossing new book about art, music, love, perseverance, and faith."

－James Martin, SJ, author of Learning to Pray

“Witkowski’s playing is consistently thrilling, and her musical imagination seems boundless.”

－All Music Guide

“Witkowski offers readers a glimpse into the inner life of a ‘musical contemplative,’ who was one of the great jazz pianists, arrangers, and composers of the 20th century. Although befriended, encouraged, and counseled by several priests and women religious, Mary Lou Williams remains unknown among most African American Catholics. This contribution to the People of God series provides an opportunity for us to discover and appreciate the musical talent and spiritual commitment of one of our own.”

– M. Shawn Copeland, Professor Emerita, Department of Theology, Boston College