James Williams
b. 8 March 1951, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 20 July 2004, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. Williams studied piano formally from the age of 13, later playing church organ. His studies took him to Memphis State University, where he also encountered Memphis-based pianists Mulgrew Miller and Donald Brown, and he also explored the work of Phineas Newborn Jnr. Williams' home-town musical links were further strengthened through relationships with established Memphis artists such as pianist Harold Mabern, bass player Jamil Nasser and saxophonists George Coleman and Frank Strozier. In 1973, Williams took up a teaching post at Berklee College Of Music, and the following year, joined Alan Dawson's band with which he accompanied visiting musicians including Arnett Cobb, Art Farmer, Milt Jackson, Red Norvo and Sonny Stitt. In 1977, he made his first album as a leader and, much more significantly, met Art Blakey. He quit Berklee to join Blakey's Jazz Messengers for a four-year stint that included appearances on 10 albums. In the Messengers at this time were Wynton Marsalis, Bobby Watson, tenor saxophonist Billy Pierce, and bass player Charles Fambrough. He left the Messengers in 1981, briefly rejoined Dawson, worked with other leaders, including Chet Baker, Benny Carter, Joe Henderson, Thad Jones and Clark Terry, and then, in 1984, moved to New York.
Listen to James Williams
at Finetune.
Albums
- (1994) Up To The Minute Blues
Top Tracks
- Afro Centric
- The Masquarade Is Over
- Three Card Molly
- Up To The The Minute Blues
- Common Knowledge
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