Mary Lou Williams Mass at The National Cathedral

Jazz Times Magazine, Willard Jenkins
July 31, 1999

Special kudos are reserved for the versatile Ms. Lundy, an operatically trained contralto whose dark lower register bears an uncanny richness and who clearly invested quite a lot into this work, addressing it joyfully and with great expressiveness throughout the evening. Carmen navigated the tricky phrasing on “Lazarus” adroitly, with lone bass and guitar accompaniment, guitarist Steve Abshire bringing the blues truth throughout the presentation. Biblical passages are certainly not the easiest to phrase in a jazz context, but Ms. Lundy seized the task effortlessly through the evening.