Alvin Ailey’s joyous collaboration with jazz pianist and composer Mary Lou Williams—an artist who similarly shared roots and memories from the southern church—is a funky, soulful, and luminous work showcasing Mr. Ailey’s inspired choreography and Williams’ spiritual and uplifting mass, “Music for Peace.” She wrote and arranged for such famed bandleaders as Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, and was a friend, mentor, and teacher to Thelonious Monk, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.
The New York Times heralded the ballet as a “celebration of life, jazz, and gospel, an assertively happy work.” The 13-section dance is essentially a sermon, with musical styles that include bebop, gospel, blues, and ragtime. Coinciding with the centennial of Williams’ birth, the ballet was revived in 2010 as a new production restaged by former Associate Artistic Director Masazumi Chaya.