Steve Williams (musician)

Steve Williams, with the Bob Mover Quintet at the Ghent 2008 Jazz Festival

Live and act

Williams grew up in Washington, DC and studied music at the University of Miami . During this time he played with Monty Alexander ; before moving to New York, where he took lessons from Billy Hart . In Washington, Williams worked with Milt Jackson , Freddie Hubbard , Joe Williams , Woody Shaw , Gary Bartz , Eddie Henderson , John Hicks , Larry Willis and Mulgrew Miller in the following years . He also played in Gary Thomas ' band , with whom he recorded one of his first compositions, Pads .

Since the early 1980s he was a member of the backing band of the singer Shirley Horn , with whom he worked for 25 years. He also worked on Horn's collaborations with Toots Thielemans , Branford Marsalis / Wynton Marsalis , Carmen McRae , Roy Hargrove and Miles Davis .

After Horn's death, Williams moved back to New York in 2006, where he took lessons from Michael Carvin . He also worked with the Steve Slagle / Dave Stryker Band, Paul Bollenback , Roni Ben-Hur , Larry Willis, the John Hicks Legacy Band, Bill Saxton , Bob Mover , Amy London , Sara Lazarus , Ben Vereen , Joe Lovano and Eddie Henderson. He also directed his own quintet; his band's first album New Incentive was released in 2007; his musicians included Olivier Hutman (piano), Michael Bowie (bass), Donvonte McCoy (trumpet) and Antoine Roney (saxophone); Guest musicians were John Hicks, Gary Bartz and Roy Hargrove .

In the field of jazz he was involved in numerous recording sessions between 1984 and 2017, including a. also with Clifford Jordan / Ran Blake , Kendra Shank , Ron Holloway , Mark Taylor , Jerry Ascione / Marvin Stamm , Mark Murphy and Camille Thurman . Currently (2019) he is a member of Tardo Hammer's trio .