James Williams - R.I.P.

[stevebop]

This is the most awful news . I received an email on Tuesday morning from Brian Walkley that his dear friend, and ours, pianist, composer, band leader, educator James Williams passed away last night at University Hospital. I had been told by Bill Pierce, a couple of months ago, that James had been diagnosed with liver cancer. I'll let other wax eloquently about him. I'm too sad to put my thoughts together right now.

RIP, Dear James.

Always Know,

Steve Schwartz
Jazz from Studio Four
Friday, 7p-midnight
WGBH, 89.7FM, Boston
www.wgbh.org/jazz

[Root Doctor]

Tragic news. Williams was a wonderful player.

[Gentle Giant]

Very surprised and saddened. The only CD I have of his as a leader is a duet session with Emil Viklicky. It's playing now.

RIP, JW

[Ennis Snavely]

What a terrible shock.

He was a wonderful player. Way, way too young and too soon for this.

[jazzy mary]

Oh, this is terrible! I just saw him play about a month ago at the Iridium. I'm really upset about this. I knew James, we had a lot of friends in common. I always enjoyed seeing him and talking to him at gigs and once he gave me and a friend a ride home to Brooklyn. This is really sad.

[Lois Gilbert]

James died this morning at 7am at NYU Hospital. I talked to him last week and right now all I can say is that we are all better people for knowing him. He was one of the most generous and supportive musicians in our generation or any generation.

I just hung up with Steve Wilson who called from Japan and is with Mulgrew. As Steve said, James Williams was a gift to all of us. Bobby Watson got to spend a little time with James yesterday at the hospital.

We are all just such better people for having James in our lives and if I can live my life a fraction of the way James did; in his giving, his humility, his respect for our elders and his love for his peers and the younger musicians, I will live a fuller life. I don't know if I'm making much sense now and I'll post more later

[Billy Childs]

I've lost a brother. James was one of the most beautiful, talented, and kindest people I've had the pleasure of knowing (for the past 26 years). Because we shared the same birthday, every March 8th James, me, George Coleman and Dick Hyman would set up these conference calls and touch base with each other. I'm really gonna miss him. His very existence made the world a better place to live.

[grove47]

Oh, man, I can't believe this. I didn't know he was sick. Wow. I met him several times. I'm not sure he would have remembered me, but he was always so nice, genuine. I am in shock.

The first time I saw him was at a clinic with Mingus at Berklee in '74 or '75. I think Kenwood Dennard played drums. Years later I saw him so many times with his own quartet that included Billy Pierce, John Lockwood and Alan Dawson. He loved to play and he loved his audience. He loved his musicians and would introduce them at length. James had a great feeling in his music and I used to dig it when he played some gospel things. And he was a great composer; he wrote soulful tunes that had great melodies and harmony, great bass lines. Very contemporary for the times, but rooted, sort of the same vibe as Bobby Watson, another great writer.

I got a chance to play with him just once, at a tiny club where he was playing in a trio with Lockwood and Bill Pierce. Lockwood told me to get a snare and cymbal and sit in ,which I still remember very well. I saw him a few years later at an arts festival when he came over and complimented me on my music. I didn't even know any musicians were out there listening, let alone James Williams. In '94 I ran into James playing solo piano at a reception before the Monk Competition and I went up to him. We talked a little bit. He was on the panel that adjudicated the composers. I remember he asked me about the Maine Jazz Camp, all of this banter while playing his ass off!

I am just stunned. What a youthful, committed spirit. Tell me this is not the same James Williams and that this is all wrong.

[clinthopson]

I am shocked. James Williams was one of my very favorites of the current pianists.

My condolences go out to all his family and friends.

[Ron Thorne]

What a loss!

Before logging on to Jazz Corner this morning, I received an e-mail from a friend in California with this sad news.

Curiously, I ordered Alan Dawson's only recording as a leader just last week, and noted that James was not only the pianist but the producer as well. Oh, and he also wrote the liner notes. I'm awaiting this wonderful music with great anticipation.

We're losing far too many great artists prematurely.

My sincere condolences to the family and countless friends of James Williams.

[CYMBALHOLIC]

Man I really hate to hear this....terrible news. As has been said again and again, we are all lucky to have had him on the earth - as well as many others we've lost this year. I received a call last night about his failing health but I had not known that it was on this level....he suffers no more now. Rest in Peace, James.




Take nothing for granted.

Chad

[hornplayer]

Oh, My God! What a terrible shock to log on here and read this! I also did not know he was ill... haven't seen him for quite a few months..

What a gentle man... and wonderful musician.

I remember the very verbose newsletters he used to send out... An acquaintance and I used to read them and correct them (lovingly).

Man... God is assembling one He!! of a Band up there!!!

Liver Cancer is so very painful... at least he's resting peacefully now. He will certainly be missed.

[Chris D]

He was a truly generous man, well-spoken and warm.
He always had time for anyone who cared for the music, and he was a great patron of younger musicians.
We will miss you, James.

[graypencil]

Very Sad news indeed ..

James was a wonderful musician and an ever better person ..

RIP James ..

[Kevin Bresnahan]

I can't believe this... too young. God, James swung like no other. I just missed seeing him last year on one of his all too few trips through Boston. I'll have to go with my memories.

I love those "Magical Trio" dates James did for Emarcy back in the late 80's. Talk about musicianship! There's the one with Ray Brown & Art Blakey, the second with Brown & Elvin Jones and the third with the "youngsters", Charnett Moffett & Tain Watts. All just perfect examples of a trio at work... and they swung like mad! I'll have to play those tonight in memory of James.

Later,
Kevin

[clinthopson]

As coincidence would have it, earlier today I was burning the 1978 Art Blakey "Reflections In Blue" lp to cd.

This was a splendid band, one of Bu's best, with Valerie Ponomarev, Bobby Watson, Dave Schnitter, Dennis Irwin and James Williams.

The disc features three of James' lines, the title song, "Say, Dr. 'J' " and Stretching. They are perfect Messengers' lines.

James' playing is so solid throughout whether he's backing soloists or soloing himself.

This was the the first time, I think, I heard James on record. It made me an instant fan and I've bought everything I could find by or with him since then.

It was also the first time I heard Bobby Watson, again, that made me an instant fan.

Rest well, James, you wil be remembered.

[Mike Schwartz]

I'm at a loss to respond, the sudden turn in his condition coming very fast, as has been passed along to me.

Was looking forward to concerts that were to be just a couple of weeks from now. The last I saw him was another one of those warm, freindly conversations at the IAJE in January.

Another great one leaves us...

Some of his work was spiritually based...rest easy James Williams.

[Lois Gilbert]

It has been a long long day and I'm extremely exhausted, but I wanted to post some thoughts about James, and please forgive my rambling

James had a knack of finding the best in people and striving to help people find the best in themselves. Beyond James' massive talent, he took the responsibility that he learned from Art Blakey and Phineas Newborn of carrying on the tradition and adding to it very seriously but not somberly. He was a teacher to everyone that came into contact with him. In fact, he taught me a life lesson in the last few weeks about dignity, respect and grace. He received an email over the weekend that came to me instead of going to his website. Unfortunately, I didn''t have an opportunity to read it to him. I took it for granted, that I could read it to him on the phone this week. Another lesson - how precious time is, and to make it the best time of our lives.

The email was from a young musician who talked to James 3 years ago backstage at one his performances. He said that conversation turned his life around and convinced him that he was on the right path. James had the knack: everbody he touched whether personally or through music became a better person.

Thank you James

[Robin Eubanks]

The last time I saw James was a few weeks ago at the Elvin Jones Memorial at the Riverside Church, in Harlem. I got there late and sat in the back. A singer was singing accompanied by piano. I couldn't see the pianist but I said,"That sounds like James!" It had that James Williams sound.
Sure enough Billy Taylor announced James as the pianist. When he walked back to his seat. I remember thinking, that doesn't look like James.
I couldn't see too well from the back of the large church.

After the service we made eye contact and he walked over and gave me a big hug as he always did when we saw each other. I could see that he had lost a lot of weight. He spoke in my ear and told me he was sick. He said that he had spoken with my brother Kevin a couple of times during his ordeal. I had no idea James was sick until I saw him.

I called Kevin to tell him James didn't look too well. I called James on Sunday night to see how he was doing. A friend answered the phone and told me James wasn't feeling good and that his doctor was readmitting him to the hospital. Rufus Reid was there to take him to the hospital. I spoke with James for a few minutes and told him he was in all of our prayers.

Kevin called me today from Los Angeles to tell me of his death.
I have many wonderful musical and personal memories of James.
We played together with both Art Blakey and Elvin Jones.
He will certainly be missed.....

-Robin

[Lois Gilbert]

James Williams, Pianist and Leading Jazz Educator, Dies at 53
By BEN RATLIFF
NY Times

James Williams, a pianist formerly in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers and a leading jazz educator, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 53 and lived in Brooklyn.

The cause was liver cancer, said Jenise Grice, fiancée of the drummer Tony Reedus, Mr. Williams's nephew.

Mr. Williams was born in Memphis, and he grew up surrounded by musicians like Harold Mabern, George Coleman and Jamil Nasser. Like them, he used elements of gospel and blues in his sunny, swinging improvisations. But as a teacher and producer of jazz, he was also a repository of standards in jazz, including the more modern ones; he was especially interested in the pianist Phineas Newborn Jr., who also came from Memphis.

After attending Memphis State University, Mr. Williams moved to Boston, where he taught at Berklee College of Music from 1972 to 1977; at that time he worked with groups led by Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw and others. In 1977 he joined the Jazz Messengers, playing over four years and 10 albums and alongside Wynton Marsalis and Bobby Watson.

In 1984, Mr. Williams moved to New York, where he became a bandleader and educator as well as a producer of albums and concerts. He formed the Contemporary Piano Ensemble, a four-pianist group; he also started a band called Intensive Care Unit, which used a revolving cast of singers and worked at reconciling gospel with jazz. He formed Finas Sound Productions, through which he produced many albums and concerts.

He was named director of jazz studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, N.J., in 1999 and taught until he was hospitalized in April of this year.

Mr. Williams is survived by two brothers, Hannibal Parkes and Ralph Parkes, both of Memphis; and a sister, Barbara Williams, also of Memphis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/21/ob...1williams.html

[Mark Kleinhaut]

We're all shocked by this terrible news. However, his music will live forever!

[Chaz Longue]

This is terribly sad.

The only time I spoke with James, he spent the whole conversation telling me what a wonderful pianist Mulgrew Miller was. He wouldn't talk about his own playing, or really aknowledge praise for a wonderful set he'd just played. He just wanted to uplift another player.

He'll be greatly missed.

[bluenoter]

Well, I know even less than I'd thought--I'd never heard of James Williams. He sounds like an extraordinary musician, teacher, and person. My condolences too go to his family, friends, and fans.

R.I.P.

[Ron Thorne]

I was never privileged to hear James Williams in person, let alone speak with him. However, his accomplishments and reputation are legendary. And, as the saying goes, "A picture's worth ...



I truly wish I could be present for the memorial tribute.

[jazzy mary]

Originally Posted by bluenoter

Well, I know even less than I'd thought--I'd never heard of James Williams. He sounds like an extraordinary musician, teacher, and person. My condolences too go to his family, friends, and fans.

R.I.P.

Oh, he was, BN. He was a fine man, musician, educator, and on and on. I hope I can go to his memorial. I predict there will be a lot of people there to pay their respects.

[groover]

Sorry to hear about James. Though many of the greats have passed in recent years, I'm sure everyone assumed James would be on this planet much longer, creating worthwhile music for all to enjoy.

I just ordered two of his albums, "Talkin' Trash" (with Clark Terry) and "James Williams Meets the Saxophone Masters" (with Joe Henderson and George Coleman) which I'll listen to as a private memorial to the gifted pianist he was.

[Ennis Snavely]

I remember one night at One Step Down here in DC when Williams had a group with Kevin Eubanks, Billy Pierce and (I think) Marvin Smith. It was a wonderful group.

There's one solo he plays on Tom Harrell's "Sail Away" that kills me everytime I hear it.

[Lois Gilbert]

James Williams, 53; brought vast tapestry of jazz to keyboard


By and Mark Feeney, Globe Staff | July 22, 2004

James Williams, one of the leading jazz pianists of his generation and an honorary favorite son of the Boston music scene, thanks to his years teaching at the Berklee College of Music and residence here during the 1970s and early '80s, died Monday in New York of liver cancer. He was 53.

A passionate advocate for jazz, Mr. Williams was also a composer, educator, and producer. He had served as director of jazz studies at William Paterson University in New Jersey since 1999. He formed Finas Sound Productions, which produced records and concerts, in 1993.

In all his professional capacities, Mr. Williams drew on an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and popular music. In addition to his own compositions, he played a notably wide range of jazz and popular standards. Mr. Williams also played and recorded in a wide range of formats: trios, sextets, a piano quartet (with rhythm section), and a jazz-gospel ensemble, Intensive Care Unit.

"I had never heard a piano player . . . who played with so much history in his music," said Bill Pierce, a friend of Mr. Williams's who heads the woodwinds department at Berklee and played with him at various times during the past three decades.

"He delivered the full history of the piano, from stride to McCoy Tyner to the modern modal players. He was a complete musician," Pierce said.

Mr. Williams, who was born in Memphis in 1951, began studying piano at 13. He grew up listening to rhythm and blues and gospel (he spent six years playing organ in a Memphis church), and that influence could be heard in the consistent soulfulness of his playing.

When asked to cite favorite piano players, Mr. Williams would reel off dozens of names. His first influences, though, were Oscar Peterson, Red Garland, and Wynton Kelly. Although Mr. Williams absorbed many other styles, his playing always remained, in a sense, defined by those three, Kelly especially. Their unfailing sense of swing, their emphasizing musicality over technique, and a knack for understatement made them exemplary accompanists.

To a degree, Mr. Williams suffered for the latter quality. His devotion to the music meant he was equally comfortable in the role of sideman and soloist or leader. It was a musical modesty that kept his public profile lower than it might otherwise have been.

The awareness of jazz as a tradition, which served him so well both on the bandstand and in the classroom, served him less commercially.

In Memphis, Mr. Williams was friends with fellow pianists Donald Brown and Mulgrew Miller. In a Globe interview earlier this year, Miller said Mr. Williams "doesn't sound like anybody else. He is a wizard with harmony. There is roots and blues in his playing that hit you where you live."

Mr. Williams graduated from Memphis State University in 1974. He immediately joined the faculty at Berklee, teaching there until 1977.

"It was a good transitional period," he said in a 1982 Boston Phoenix interview, "as opposed to going from, say, Memphis to New York, which would have been a little too traumatic. Boston was a great bridge."

While in Boston, Mr. Williams played regularly with drummer Alan Dawson, as well as trumpeter Woody Shaw and saxophonist Joe Henderson.

In 1977, Mr. Williams joined Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, the most famous finishing school in jazz. He remained with the group for four years, recording 10 albums during that time.

Mr. Williams played as a sideman on recordings with numerous other artists, including guitarists Kenny Burrell and Kevin Eubanks, trumpeter Clark Terry, and singer Kevin Mahogany.

Among notable recordings Mr. Williams made under his own name are "Magical Trio," "James Williams Meets the Saxophone Masters," "Piano Ensemble," and "Truth, Justice & the Blues."

In addition to his talent and range, Mr. Williams was admired in the jazz circles of Manhattan and Boston for his work supporting fellow musicians, his colleagues say. Through his roles as band leader, teacher, and head of a production company, he served as promoter, advocate, and counselor of struggling artists.

"He made sure some of the neglected musicians of my generation, and there's quite a few, got out into the public eye," Pierce said. "And he also went to the other extreme, helping some of the older musicians who got neglected, making sure they were out there playing.

"He was a mentor to young and old musicians alike."

Mr. Williams, who moved from Boston to New York in 1984, leaves two brothers, Hannibal Parkes and Ralph Parkes, and a sister, Barbara Williams, all of Memphis. Arrangements for a memorial service are incomplete.

[Capt.W./TX.]

A superb 'mainstream modern' pianist-and one of the genuinely nicest people I ever met in the jazz biz.

He played a gig in Dallas at the DMA Atrium a few years ago with Bill Pierce, Ray Drummond and Tony Reedus; subsequently I ran into him at IAJE conventions-he remembered me from the Dallas gig. I'm sure my experience was not unique. With that kind of personality, he was a great choice to head the jazz program at William Patterson. I'm sorry I never got to see him in action as a clinician.

Along with Phineas Newborn, Harold Mabern and Mulgrew Miller, James was one of Memphis' great gifts to modern jazz piano.

[Lois Gilbert]

James Williams should have been better known. I received the shock news of his death last week from friends on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a victim of cancer at just 53 years of age.

Williams first came to fame as pianist in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers from the late 1970s alongside Wynton Marsalis and Bobby Watson. His was a style much loved by other pianists as well as by listeners – straight forwardly melodic, uncluttered in its rhythmic drive, harmonically interesting without false contrivancies and with plenty of gospel and blues roots.

Although never a person to seek the spotlight of fame for the sake of it, he had the respect and admiration of his peers throughout the world. Since leaving Blakey, the exalted musical company in which he worked almost leave you gasping – to name Dizzy Gillespie, Dianne Reeves, Christian McBride, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, Ed Thigpen and Billy Cobham just gives you a flavour of it.

He had many friends in Britain, including readers of this column. In the late 1990s I had the pleasure of arranging some tours for him in the U.K. and in France. I was amazed and delighted at the numbers who turned out for his appearances, some hearing his playing for the first time, others coming with full knowledge and with albums for him to autograph.

The noted American saxophonist, composer and teacher Frank Griffith, who now lives in Britain, summed up James Williams the musician and the man with these words: “James always gave you his time. He inspired confidence, taking no greater pleasure than to encourage newer, younger musicians, not just with words, but by turning up at their gigs.”

Local pianist Tom Cawley would echo that. A few years ago, as winner of the Perrier Young Jazz Musician Award, he was given a week at New York’s Bluenote Club. There in the crowd was none other than James Williams. We salute his memory.


Chris Howes , How's About Jazz