John B. Williams (jazz musician)

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John B. Williams (born February 27, 1941 in the Bronx , New York City ) is an American jazz bassist.

Live and act

Williams grew up in the Sugar Hill neighborhood of Harlem ; as a child he played drums and piano. As a teenager he was a drummer in a band called The Jazz Disciples , with which he won an amateur competition at the Apollo Theater ; He also learned ballet and eventually switched to the double bass . From 1960 he did military service in the Marine Corps ; he had his first lessons while he was stationed at Camp LeJeunne Naval Base in North Carolina. After his release in 1964 he studied bass with Ron Carter and played with Horace Silver , then with Hugh Masekela ,Dizzy Gillespie , Leon Thomas , Kenny Burrell , Jon Hendricks , Horace Parlan , Jimmy Smith , Grady Tate , Roland Hanna . Recordings were made with Roy Ayers , Bobby Hutcherson / Harold Land , Johnny Hammond Smith , Count Basie , Louis Armstrong and Benny Carter . From 1969 he worked for seven years in the studio band of Johnny Carson's Tonight Show .

In the 1970s, Williams played for Billy Cobham ( Crosswinds ), George Duke and Garnett Brown ; he also studied music history at the International College . In 1975 he founded his band Expectations , which in the course of its existence a. a. Ernie Watts , Bill Mays and Milcho Leviev belonged to. In the following years he worked as a freelance musician and worked a. a. with Louie Bellson , Pearl Bailey, and Freddie Hubbard ; from 1976 as accompanist for Nancy Wilson . From 1989 he was a member of the studio band of the television shows The Posse and The Arsenio Hall Show ; in addition, he dealt with poetry, which he integrated into his music ( John B. Williams Poetry Moment ) and collaborated with the playwright Bradley Rand Smith and with the poet Wanda Coleman.

From the 1980s, Williams worked as a musician or actor in several films and TV series, in The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd (with Blair Brown ), in The Tic Code (1999) and The Naked Brothers Band . In the 2000s he worked a. a. in Michael Wolff's Impure Thoughts Band , Manhattan Transfer , Bobby Matos Afro-Latin All Stars and again with Billy Cobham, Randy Brecker and Kenny Barron . With Bennie Maupin he formed the Maupin / Williams Project ( Live at Club Rhapsody ). With members of the backing band of Nancy Wilson (inter alia with Roy McCurdy ) he recorded his debut album Gratitude ; he also worked with Jessica Williams , who contributed to his second album Arabesque (2011). In the field of jazz he was involved in 27 recording sessions between 1960 and 2014.

Lexigraphic entry

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary for Wanda Coleman in LA Weekly (2013)
  2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed May 12, 2017)
personal data
SURNAME Williams, John B.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz bassist
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Bronx , New York City