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Jeff Williams

Jeff Williams was raised in Oberlin, Ohio where he began playing drums at age eight. Self-taught, with the aid of his parents’ collection of jazz recordings as a guide, he started playing gigs with local professionals at age fourteen. Jeff’s mother, Ann Williams, moved to New York to pursue a jazz singing career when he was nine, introducing him to a number of musicians who would be his early mentors, including drummers Jo Jones, Herb Lovelle, Elvin Jones, and Oliver Jackson. In 1967 Jeff made his recording debut with the psychedelic group Ant Trip Ceremony (Cicadelic). In 1968 Jeff entered the Berklee College of Music and studied drumming with Alan Dawson. In 1971 he moved to New York and soon became acquainted with Dave Liebman and Richie Beirach, with whom he would form the group Lookout Farm. In 1972 Jeff joined Stan Getz for a two-year stay in groups that included Dave Holland on bass and pianists Hal Galper, Beirach, and Albert Daily. He appeared at the Half Note with Lee Konitz the same year, beginning an association that would continue for several decades. Jeff also recorded Friends (Oblivion) in 1972 with Marc Cohen (now Copland), John Abercrombie, and Clint Houston. Following the recording of Lookout Farm (ECM) in 1973 Jeff toured Europe, Asia, and the US while also participating in multiple subsequent recordings until the group disbanded in 1976. For the remainder of the ‘70s Jeff freelanced in and around New York, accompanying such artists as Joe Farrell, Frank Foster, Nick Brignola, Billy Mitchell, and George Coleman, while also performing in groups led by Arnie Lawrence (Treasure Island), Ted Curson, Richard Sussman, and Albert Daily, as well as leading a band that included John Scofield. After a one-year hiatus in Maine, Jeff moved to Boston in 1981. While resuming study with Alan Dawson, Jeff took part in the formation of a jazz series at Harvard University’s Hasty Pudding Club. There he accompanied Cedar Walton, Lee Konitz, Milt Hinton, (saxophonist) Bill Evans, John Scofield, and Miroslav Vitous. From ’83 to ’86 Jeff performed and recorded with Jerry Bergonzi’s quartet Con Brio. Following a return to New York in 1983 Jeff formed the trio Interplay with Peter Madsen and Anthony Cox, toured Japan with pianist Sakurako Ogyu and Marc Johnson, while also performing with Michel Petrucciani, Art Farmer/Clifford Jordan, Randy Brecker/John Abercrombie, and Cecil McBee’s quartet. For the majority of 1988 Jeff played with Stan Getz, joined by the Interplay rhythm section, with Kenny Barron later replacing Madsen.

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8
Album Review

David Liebman, Jeff Williams: In Duo

Read "In Duo" reviewed by Neil Duggan


There is a wonderful hidden treasure trove of jazz recordings which keep being unearthed from old radio broadcasts, forgotten corners of attics or, in this case, boxes of old cassette tapes. Drummer Jeff Williams was delving through some old cassettes made during his extensive career. He found a recording from an improvisational session he made in 1991 with saxophonist Dave Liebman. The recording was made at a session at Bar Room 432, on the West Side of 14th Street in ...

3
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Jerome Wilson


A lot of personal factors go into saxophonist Dan Blake's music on this CD, such as his concerns about the environment, his Buddhist teachings and his social activism. What comes out of this is a style of electro-acoustic jazz which is alternately meditative and fiery. The basic music here was performed in the studio by a quartet of Blake on saxophone, Carmen Staaf on piano, Dmitry Ishenko on bass and Jeff Williams on drums. The tunes were then ...

1
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic


It's comforting to know that saxophonist Dan Blake hasn't taken Thoreau's inconvenient truth that “most men lead lives of quiet desperation" to heart. Instead, as his Da Fé (translated: of faith) and his apprenticeships with Anthony Braxton} and {{Julian Lage prove succinctly, Blake intends to bring the music, and the consciousness of our fragility within it, to the fore, in hopes the listener can shake the malaise too and pick up the call for action. Blake escorts his ...

6
Album Review

Paul Dunmall, Percy Pursglove, Olie Brice, Jeff Williams: Palindromes

Read "Palindromes" reviewed by John Sharpe


Bassist Olie Brice had an inkling that it might be worthwhile introducing two of his collaborators who had never played together before, British reed titan Paul Dunmall and American drummer Jeff Williams. It proves devastatingly correct on Palindromes. They unite, together with trumpeter Percy Pursglove, on a collective live album--recorded at London's Cafe Oto, in February 2020, during a short tour--which dazzles at every turn. Williams, a veteran of bands with the likes of Dave Liebman, Stan ...

4
Album Review

Dan Blake: Da Fé

Read "Da Fé" reviewed by Mark Corroto


Saxophonist-composer Dan Blake's Da Fé ("of faith"), a meditation on our world in crisis, may have taken, as a starting point, the lyrics to Lou Reed's “Busload Of Faith" from the über-cynical New York (Sire, 1989) recording, “You can depend on cruelty / crudity of thought and sound / You can depend on the worst always happening / you need a busload of faith to get by." What with global warming, income disparity, hunger, and homelessness, the gentle folk of ...

16
Album Review

Jeff Williams: Road Tales - Live At London Jazz Festival

Read "Road Tales - Live At London Jazz Festival" reviewed by Friedrich Kunzmann


Some live albums impress with the sophistication of restraint or sonic clarity, others simply boast energy. Veteran drummer Jeff Williams' Road Tales: Live At London Jazz Festival unmistakably belongs to the latter. Vested with two handfuls of original compositions and an adept cast of sidemen, Williams delivers a fiery set of saxophone-led post-bop that revisits a number of tunes from the drummer's past albums and presents a couple of new pieces. Since joining Whirlwind recordings, Williams has been ...

8
Album Review

Jeff Williams: Bloom

Read "Bloom" reviewed by Roger Farbey


In a new departure, Jeff Williams has forsaken the quartet, quintet or sextet configurations of his previous four albums for Whirlwind in favour of this very convincing trio format. In tandem with this slimmed-down enterprise, he's employed a pianist and composer who is undoubtedly a rising star of jazz. Carmen Staaf graduated with a joint degree from Tufts University (Anthropology) and the New England Conservatory (Jazz Performance) and thence became one of Berklee College of Music's youngest faculty members. She's ...

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148

Performance / Tour

Saco Yasuma's "Another Rain" (Mon) Russ Spiegel Sextet (Tue) Dan McCarthy Trio Feat. Myron Walden (Wed) Jeff Williams QT & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Saco Yasuma's "Another Rain" (Mon) Russ Spiegel Sextet (Tue) Dan McCarthy Trio Feat. Myron Walden (Wed) Jeff Williams QT & More This Week at Cornelia Street Cafe

Source: Jim Eigo, Jazz Promo Services

CORNELIA STREET CAFE 29 Cornelia Street, NYC, New York 212-989-9319 between West 4th and Bleecker Sts, Greenwich Village 1 Subway to Sheridan Square; A, C, E, B, D, V, F to West 4th St. This Week At Cornelia Street Cafe Mon Jul 30 8:30PM CD RELEASE EVENT SACO YASUMA'S “ANOTHER RAIN" (Saco Yasuma, alto saxophone, Xaphoon, compositions;Roy Campbell Jr., trumpet, flugelhorn;Andrew Bemkey, piano, bass clarinet;Ken Filiano, bass;Michael T.A. ...

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

In Duo

Whirlwind Recordings
2024

buy

Palindromes

West Hill
2021

buy

Da Fé

Sunnyside Records
2021

buy

Road Tales - Live At...

Whirlwind Recordings
2020

buy

Bloom

Whirlwind Recordings
2019

buy

Lifelike

Whirlwind Recordings
2018

buy

Cry of the East

From: Da Fé
By Jeff Williams

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