Whit Williams

Whit Williams Now's the Time Big Band: Featuring Slide Hampton and Jimmy Heath

by George Kanzler
April 9, 2008

Here's more proof of the vitality of the regional jazz scene around this country. Veteran saxophonist and jazz educator Whit Williams began this big band in Baltimore in 1981 and over the years it has accompanied Aretha Franklin and played Ellington's “Night Creature" with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Here guests Jimmy Heath (tenor sax) and Slide Hampton (trombone) also contribute four and three (respectively) of the ten charts on the CD. Tenor saxophonist Gary Thomas and alto saxophonist Charlie Young ...