PLEASE HELP! We need donations to help fund the recording, touring and promoting of the "Mary Lou Williams - The Next 100 Years" project. As a thank-you, for donations of $100 or more we will send you a Special Limited Edition 4 Gigabyte Metal Flash Drive Collectible packaged in a great display case. This reusable drive will contain MP3's of the studio recordings of this project, videos from the studio and live gigs, and other memorabilia. PLUS we'll include packaged copies of all 4 Virginia Mayhew Renma Recordings CD's. These gifts will be shipped to you in early 2011. Thanks for helping to make this project a reality! To donate by mail: Please send a check or money order to: Renma Music, LLC P.O. Box 893, 31 Vose Ave. South Orange, NJ 07079 Thank You! . . . . . . .

NEWS | SPRING 2010 Virginia Mayhew Announces "Mary Lou Williams - The Next 100 Years" Virginia Mayhew and Renma Recordings are pleased to announce a forthcoming recording and tour, "Mary Lou Williams - The Next 100 Years", which will honor the 100th anniversary of Mary Lou William's birth, (in 2010.) In late 2009, jazz saxophonist-composer-arranger Virginia Mayhew and Italian jazz pianist Tony Pancella were considering various female jazz musicians to focus on for an upcoming Italian Women In Jazz festival. At some point Tony realized that 2010 was the 100th anniversary of Mary Lou Williams birth, and this project began. During the course of her research, Virginia was introduced to the executor of Mary Lou’s estate, Father Peter O’Brien, who offered invaluable information and musical suggestions, and made arrangements for Virginia to have full access to the Mary Lou Williams Collection at Rutgers’ Institute of Jazz Studies. The Jazz Institute has many of Mary Lou’s hand-written charts, arrangements, musical sketches, and lyrics/notes. This material was so inspiring that Virginia decided to build this into a bigger project, "Mary Lou Williams - The Next 100 Years", which will include a CD, U.S. performances, and an international tour with her quartet(s) beginning in the Spring of 2010. "Although I was aware that Mary Lou Williams was a well-respected jazz musician," offered Virginia, "I was surprised by the depth and breadth of her career - composing and arranging for Andy Kirk and the Clouds of Joy in the 30’s, arranging for Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman, recording with tenor giant Don Byas, and mentoring such Jazz giants as Monk, Bud Powell, Dizzy Gillespie and Bird (Charlie Parker), in addition to leading her own groups. She covered every major style from Stride Piano to Big Band to Bebop to Funk, and even touched on Free Jazz. There’s so much to be explored in her music, that I knew I wanted to do a more involved project than just a few arrangements for a single gig." Currently, Virginia is preparing to head into the recording studio with her US quartet: Kenny Wessel (guitar), Harvie S (bass) and Vince Ector (drums). A separate European quartet will feature pianist Tony Pancella and his trio. "The response to this project has been very enthusiastic," says Virginia, "with the group already booked for a tour of Italy, and performances at the Kennedy Center in Washington and at Small’s Jazz Club in New York City." "Thank you, Mary Lou Williams, and Happy 100th Birthday!" Booking Now for 2010-2011 Please click here to download the Electronic Press Kit (EPK.) . . . . . . .