David Williams (musician)

David Williams, Elvin Jones, and Ryō Kawasaki ; 1969

David "Happy" Williams (* 17th September 1946 in Trinidad ) is an American jazz - bassist .

Live and act

Williams is the son of calypso musician John "Buddy" Williams and was interested in music as a child. He started playing the piano at the age of five; he switched to the violin at the age of six and to the double bass at the age of twelve . When his sister received a scholarship to study piano in London , he accompanied her and studied bass at the London College of Music .

In 1969 he came to New York , where he soon met his teacher Ron Carter . On his recommendation he worked with Gap and Chuck Mangione and was bassist in Roberta Flack's band in Washington for two years . After his return to New York he worked a. a. with The Voices of East Harlem and Donald Byrd & the Blackbyrds , with whom he later received his first gold record. During this time he first appeared with Cedar Walton , as well as with musicians such as George Coleman , Roy Haynes , Billy Taylor and Junior Cook . He was also a partner of Ornette Coleman before playing with Elvin Jones for two years .

In 1976 he moved to Los Angeles , where he recorded about twenty albums with disco , funk , fusion and pop groups . His partners included u. a. Herb Alpert , Hugh Masekela , David Benoit , Jermaine Jackson and Liberace . He received his second gold record for the disco hit Le Spank . With Soul is Free In 1979, his first album as a bandleader. Eddie Murphy used one of his compositions from it in his film Trading Places .

After working with Art Pepper for two years , he returned to New York in 1982. When Cedar Waltons bassist Sam Jones died shortly afterwards , he joined Billy Higgins in his trio, with whom he recorded the album Upfront in 1987 , and with Walton under Vincent Herring he formed the Eastern Rebellion trio . He also worked with numerous other musicians such as Jackie McLean , Woody Shaw , Bobby Hutcherson , Stan Getz , Kenny Barron , Monty Alexander , Leon Thomas , Frank Morgan , Hank Jones , Charles McPherson , Larry Willis , George Cables , Abdullah Ibrahim , David Newman , Sonny Fortune , Louis Hayes , Clifford Jordan , Abbey Lincoln , Ernestine Anderson, and Kathleen Battle .

Williams has also appeared on several television shows such as The Today Show , Soul Train and Merv Griffin , Johnny Carson and Dick Cavett . His discography now includes more than two hundred albums and he has performed in numerous countries around the world.

He has also been composing calypso titles since 2000: The first success was Happy's Story (which earned him the nickname David Happy Williams), followed by the album Ping Pong Obsession in 2001 . He also worked on Vanessa Rubin's album Girl Talk and in 2002 on the album I Wish You Love by Manhattan Transfer singer Janis Siegel .

literature

• Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .

Web links

• Web presence with discography
• David Williams at Allmusic (English)