Buster Williams

Buster Williams, Oslo Jazz Festival 2016

Buster Williams in New York 2008

Buster Williams ( Charles Anthony Williams, Jr. , born April 17, 1942 in Camden , New Jersey ) is an American jazz bassist .

Live and act

Williams received double bass and drum lessons from his father. He joined Jimmy Heath 's band in 1959 (with Sam Dockery and Specs Wright ) and worked with Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt from 1960 to 1961 . He then took courses in composition, harmony and music theory at Combs College of Music in Philadelphia and accompanied the singers Dakota Staton (1961-62), Betty Carter (1962-63), Sarah Vaughan (1963) and after appearances with the Gerald Price Trio Nancy Wilson (1964-68), with whom he went to Los Angeles. There he took theJazz Crusaders and Miles Davis and worked with Kenny Dorham and the Bobby Hutcherson / Harold Land Quintet .

After returning to New York in 1969, he became a member of Herbie Hancock's band and was involved in all of their recordings until 1972, as well as on Bennie Maupin's ECM album The Jewel in the Lotus (1974). He also worked with Art Blakey , Herbie Mann , Mary Lou Williams and Eddie Henderson's group . In the following years Williams recorded a number of albums as a band leader and was nominated for a Grammy in 1980 for his participation on the album Love For Sale (with Hank Jones and Tony Williams ) . With Ron Carter and the London Symphony Orchestra , he recorded the soundtrack for the film Le Choix des armes .

In the early 1980s he worked with Herbie Hancock, Tony Williams and Wynton Marsalis and (until 1995) in a trio with Hancock and Al Foster . In 1989 he released an album of his own compositions ( Something More ), in which Hancock, Foster, the trumpeter Shunzo Ono and Wayne Shorter participated. In 1991 he was commissioned to compose a work for jazz quintet, strings and choir.

He was then a member of the Sphere quartet (with Kenny Barron , Ben Riley and Charlie Rouse ), founded his own quintet ( Something More ), with which he toured Europe, Japan and Australia and took part in the Moscow Jazz Festival, and joined the group The Timeless Allstars (with Cedar Walton , Billy Higgins , Curtis Fuller , Harold Land, and Bobby Hutcherson ). In 1998 he worked on Geri Allen's album The Gathering .

Discographic notes

• Pinnacle with Sonny Fortune , Guilherme Franco , Onaje Allan Gumbs , Billy Hart , Suzanne Klewan , Woody Shaw , Earl Turbinton , 1975
• Crystal Reflections with Roy Ayers , Kenny Barron , Billy Hart, Nobu Horushiyama , Suzanne Klewan, Jimmy Rowles , 1976
• Tokudo with Kenny Barron, Ben Riley , 1978
• Heartbeat with Kenny Barron, Gayle Dixon , Pat Dixon , Billy Hart, Suzanne Klewan, Ben Riley, 1978
• Dreams Come True with Kenny Barron, John Blake , Lloyd Carter , Hank Crawford , Akua Dixon , Gayle Dixon, Eddie Drennon , Carl Ector , Terri Gonzalez , Onaje Allan Gumbs, Billy Hart, Eddie Henderson, Nobu Horushiyama, Clarissa Howell , Curtis Rance King , Jr. , Ulysses Kirksey , Hubert Laws , Ronald Lipscomb , Ben Riley, Melvin Roundtree , Darryl Tookes , 1978
• Something More with Al Foster, Herbie Hancock, Shunzo Ohno , Wayne Shorter, 1989
• Piano Man with Billy Higgins, Hilton Ruiz , 1994
• Somewhere Along the Way with Gary Bartz , Stefon Harris , Carlos McKinney , Lenny White , 1998
• Lost in a Memory with Stefon Harris, Geri Allen, Lenny White, 1999
• Houdini with Geri Allen, Lenny White, 2001
• Joined at the Hip with Steve Wilson , Ali Muhammed Jackson , Carlos McKinney , 2002
• Griot Liberte with George Colligan , Stefon Harris, Lenny White, 2004
• Charles Tolliver : Connect (Gearbox, 2020)

Web links

• Homepage of Buster Williams