Home » Jazz Musicians » Patrice Williamson

Patrice Williamson

Some people are just born to music.

Patrice Williamson’s childhood home in Memphis, Tennessee was filled with music. Her late father, Webster Williamson, was an amateur singer, choir director, and pillar of the St. Stephen’s Baptist Church music ministry, and he introduced his children early on to both sacred music and the secular styles of legendary figures like Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, and Lena Horne. Encouraged by her mother, Lillie Rivers Williamson, Patrice followed in the footsteps of her elder sister Denise and began studying the violin, making her debut at age four in front of the St. Stephen’s congregation in a duet with her sister. From that moment on she was hooked on music, and in addition to her violin lessons, she began studying the piano at age seven and the flute at age eleven.

By her teens, Patrice was playing the flute quite seriously, and was involved in numerous high school orchestras and bands. However, when she enrolled at the University of Tennessee (UT), she decided to choose a “practical” major ?" communications. By her second year though, she realized that this was not where her heart lay, and she decided to change her major to Flute Performance. She was afraid to tell her family, but her mother very matter-of-factly replied, “Well, it’s about time. I didn’t know what you were doing in broadcasting when you’ve been in music your whole life!”

During this time she focused on classical music, and served as the principal flutist for both the UT opera and symphony orchestras. However, it was during a rehearsal break for the UT studio jazz orchestra, of which she was also a member, that one of those fateful moments occurred that can change one’s life: The conductor overheard her scatting with some fellow band members, and immediately gave her a solo in the next concert! Patrice had never considered a singing career until this moment, and the rest, as we say, is history. Encouraged by yet another UT faculty member, jazz pianist Donald Brown, she headed to the New England Conservatory for a Master’s Degree in Jazz Vocal Performance, where she worked with award-winning RCA recording artist Dominique Eade.

In Boston, Patrice hit the ground running: before she even finished her degree, she was weighing rival offers for a four-month engagement at Singapore’s premiere jazz venue, The Somerset's Bar, and a place in NEC’s prestigious Artist’s Diploma program. In the end, she managed to do both, widening her musical world even further.

Read more

Tags

2
Album Review

Patrice Williamson + Jon Wheatley: Comes Love - A Tribute To Ella Fitzgerald And Joe Pass

Read "Comes Love - A Tribute To Ella Fitzgerald And Joe Pass" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky


Centennial celebrations abound in 2017. In this year of years we fête many jazz greats delivered unto us one century ago--Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Rich, Mongo Santamaria, Thelonious Monk, and Tadd Dameron, to cite just a handful. That list of giants forever changed the face of this music, but it's a list that's noticeably incomplete without the inclusion of one Ella Fitzgerald. “The First Lady of Song," as she came to be known, raised the bar considerably and redefined the very ...

138
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: Free to Dream

Read "Free to Dream" reviewed by Jack Bowers


You want to hear beautiful music? Go directly to Track 4 on Patrice Williamson’s latest album, Free to Dream, and listen to Rodgers and Hart’s “With a Song in My Heart” — irresistibly melodic and outspokenly tender, the way a love song should be written (and sung). I’d never before heard the introduction to this masterpiece (one of many on which R&H collaborated), which is as beguiling as the verse, if not more so. Handsomely performed by Williamson, pianist Mark ...

136
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: Free To Dream

Read "Free To Dream" reviewed by Jerry D'Souza


Williamson continues to build on the promise she showed on her first album, My Shining Hour as her smoky alto makes its way through a song filling it with warmth and a smooth flowing jazz sensibility. Add her compact sense of time, the ability to swing sweetly and this turns out to be a neat album.

Williamson rows down two streams; jazz and pop. She gives The Sound Of Music Suite a sweet pop disposition and then scurries ...

132
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: Free to Dream

Read "Free to Dream" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Boston singer , by way of Memphis, TN, Patrice Williamson has come out with her second release on her River Lily label. Given the critical acclaim her first release received, it's surprising and disappointing that it has taken three years for this one to get on the streets. But such are the vagaries and narrow vision of the recording industry. Unlike her first CD, My Shining Hour, she has included three of her own compositions. There's also a heavy reliance ...

162
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: Free to Dream

Read "Free to Dream" reviewed by C. Michael Bailey


Carefully...

Free to Dream is the second recording by vocalist Patrice Williamson. The thirtysomething Memphis native follows up her 1998 debut, My Shining Hour with a contemporary collection of originals and standards accented with intelligence and pathos, both in choice and performance. Her originals are epistles of spirituality and self-actualization...and they swing, albeit with a humid momentum.

Ms. Williamson has a beautiful low alto voice that could be likened to a smooth single-malt scotch with the hint of a breathless ...

132
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: My Shining Hour

Read "My Shining Hour" reviewed by Dave Hughes


Of all the newcomers that have arrived on the jazz vocal scene of late, Patrice Williamson is the most pleasant surprise. On her CD My Shining Hour , she demonstrates the difference between truly being a jazz singer, as opposed to a singer who sings jazz tunes. She possesses a full-bodied alto voice with impeccable pitch and enunciation. She brings a bit more breadth to her interpretations of the melodies, then dives fearlessly into her improvized solos. The repertoire is ...

111
Album Review

Patrice Williamson: My Shining Hour

Read "My Shining Hour" reviewed by Jack Bowers


When one’s ears, on a vocal album, are constantly drawn toward the pianist as the primary source of interest, the singer is clearly in some trouble. While I’ve nothing against Patrice Williamson, the nominal centerpiece of this session, I was more impressed by her main accompanist, pianist Helen Sung. Like many other aspiring young vocalists, Williamson has some talent — but not nearly enough, in this observer’s estimation, to separate her from the herd. Williamson’s mellow, mid–range voice isn’t bad ...

Read more articles
202

Performance / Tour

Pamela Hines Trio with Patrice Williamson at AJC on December 12

Pamela Hines Trio with Patrice Williamson at AJC on December 12

Source: Kari-On Productions

Patrice Williamson will sing songs from Pamela Hines's latest New Christmas. The Boston vocalist has made a name for herself with scat talents and with the vocal group ESP. $10.00 cover, Acton Jazz Cafe (MA) show starts at 7:00 pm.

Acton Jazz Cafe 452 The Great Road (Behind the Collage Mall) Acton, MA 01720 978-263-6161

About Patrice Williamson Some people are just born to music. Patrice Williamson’s childhood ...

110

Performance / Tour

Patrice Williamson with Pamela Hines at the Acton Jazz Cafe

Patrice Williamson with Pamela Hines at the Acton Jazz Cafe

Source: Kari-On Productions


156

Performance / Tour

Patrice Williamson with Pamela Hines

Patrice Williamson with Pamela Hines

Source: Kari-On Productions


Photos

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Comes Love - A...

Self Produced
2017

buy

Free to Dream

River Lily
2002

buy

My Shining Hour

River Lily
2000

buy

My Shining Hour

River Lily
1999

buy

Comes Love

Tigerlily Records
0

buy

Comes Love

From: Comes Love
By Patrice Williamson

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.