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Leroy Williams

Leroy Williams is an American jazz drummer.

Williams first began playing drums as a teenager in the 1950s. From 1959 to the middle of the 1960s he played with Judy Roberts, and following this he moved to New York City and played with Booker Ervin in 1967. In 1968 he played with Sonny Rollins, Archie Shepp, and Clifford Jordan; in 1969 he first began playing with Barry Harris, with whom he would collaborate often. 1970 saw him playing with Hank Mobley, Wilbur Ware, and Thelonious Monk, the latter of which he went with on a tour of Japan. Later in the 1970s he played with Yusef Lateef, Ray Bryant, Charles McPherson, Stan Getz, Andrew Hill, Sonny Stitt, Junior Cook, Al Cohn, Buddy Tate, and Bob Wilber.

In the 1980s Williams played with Art Davis, Barry Harris, Tommy Flanagan, Steve Turre, and Bill Hardman. In the 1990s he performed with Anthony Braxton, Lee Konitz, Ralph Lalama, and Pete Malinverni. Most recently, he was a member of El Mollenium with Roni Ben-Hur, Bertha Hope, and Walter Booker.


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298
Album Review

Leroy Williams: Time Is

Read "Time Is" reviewed by Mitchell Seidel


At 67, the precocious Leroy Williams is prepared to unleash his talents as a leader on the music world. Williams, a wonderfully melodic drummer who has been playing around New York for decades, always seems to be an important part of someone else's group. Hopefully, this album will alert folks to his talents. For his debut effort he has assembled a stirling group of people who know how to--as the old report card said--play well with others. Guitarist ...

813
Rhythm In Every Guise

Leroy Williams

Read "Leroy Williams" reviewed by David A. Orthmann


A journeyman who is well regarded by his peers but seldom acknowledged by critics or the listening public, Leroy Williams has played in the bands of many of the jazz giants who came to prominence during the mid-to-late twentieth century. Despite high profile work with Sonny Rollins, Thelonious Monk, and Stan Getz, over thirty years in the company of Barry Harris, plus dozens of interesting recording dates, Williams’ self-effacing artistry often goes unnoticed. A smart, unobtrusive stylist in the bebop ...

387
Album Review

Hank Mobley: Thinking of Home

Read "Thinking of Home" reviewed by Richton Guy Thomas


The great jazz critic Leonard Feather once described Hank Mobley as the middleweight champion of the tenor saxophone. Not a name that the novice jazz fan may recognize, Hank Mobley recorded over twenty LPs for Blue Note. Thinking of Home is his last title for Blue Note; released in 1970, this is a fitting farewell session. It features the powerful trumpet playing of Woody Shaw and the exciting pianist Cedar Walton. Hank Mobley's playing has a fire that ...

331
Album Review

Hank Mobley: Thinking of Home

Read "Thinking of Home" reviewed by Robert Gilbert


Hank Mobley’s conclusion to his long and storied association with Blue Note Records has finally made it to CD through the label’s Connoisseur series. Thinking of Home, which was recorded on the last day of July in 1970 but not made available until ten years later, shows that the tenor saxophonist was still building on his trademark hard-bop style. A three-part suite that opens the album features Mobley dabbling with long-form composition and “Justine” has him providing a stimulating framework ...

328
Album Review

Barry Harris: Magnificent!

Read "Magnificent!" reviewed by C. Andrew Hovan


By the time pianist Barry Harris recorded his first session as a leader in 1958, Breakin' It Up for the Argo label, Charlie Parker had already been dead for three years and the be-bop movement that he had helped usher in was already giving way to the more visceral advance of hard bop and the beginning strains of Ornette Coleman's “new thing" approach. For Harris, who was a died-in-the-wool be-bopper, this meant coming on the scene a bit too late ...

169
Album Review

Barry Harris: Magnificent!

Read "Magnificent!" reviewed by Derek Taylor


Despite the suspicious absence of modesty in the title of this disc this is one trio that definitely lives up to their chosen moniker. One tour through the eight tunes that these three players hew to their own devices is all that’s necessary to discover that their contention is no idle boast. Harris is the comparative veteran of the group. A consummate keyboardist, Harris rose to maturity during the bumpy birth of bebop out of swing. As a result his ...

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Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Time Is

Jazz Child
2004

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Thinking of Home

Blue Note Records
2002

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Magnificent!

Prestige Records
2000

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