David Stone Martin & Mary Lou Williams

In 1944 David Stone Martin was an artist on the rise, a veteran of the art division of the Tennessee Valley Authority and an acclaimed New Deal mural painter, just beginning an independent career in illustration and commercial design. Mary Lou Williams was already famous, the high profile piano player, composer and arranger of Andy Kirk's swing orchestra, now embarking on a solo career in New York City after more than a decade on the road. David was charming, fun and a womanizer. Mary Lou, attractive, stylish, and a musical prodigy was more than his match.

They met at Café Society (1938-47), the famous Greenwich Village nightclub where jazz, blues, cabaret, art and leftist politics all shared the stage. Mary Lou was a star attraction, the Queen of Boogie Woogie. David was a club regular with an art studio conveniently located nearby. Their affair lasted less then a year, but their connection would be ongoing, a liaison of the heart rooted in the respect they each had for the other’s art and talent. It was through Williams that Martin began illustrating music albums, the creative direction that would make his reputation. He never forgot the favor. Some of his best work was for Williams' albums. In the 1960s he even joined in her poster campaign to save jazz when it was being marginalized by rock & roll; and provided art for the albums she released on the struggling record company that she had started when the major labels began ignoring jazz.

David Stone Martin created this poster using Williams' words as part of her campaign to teach children in Harlem and Pittsburgh about the importance of Jazz.

David Stone Martin's very first album cover.

Cafe Society is in the background.

Few people notice the partially hidden portrait of Mary Lou Williams on the cover of this Bud Powell record. The fragile Powell relied on Williams for both emotional support and musical guidance.

Williams' first foray into religious music following her conversion to Catholicism.