Steve Williams (jazz drummer)
Encyclopedia
Stephen Edward Williams (born January 7, 1956) is an American
jazz drummer
.
For twenty-five years he has collaborated with jazz pianist and singer Shirley Horn
.
and grew up in Washington, DC. He continued his music education at the University of Miami
. There he joined Monty Alexander
's band, with whom he started to perform on the international scene. He furthered his music education in New York, with Billy Hart.
Back in Washington, Williams played locally with Milt Jackson
, Freddie Hubbard
, Joe Williams
, Woodie Shaw, Gary Bartz
, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks
, Larry Willis
, Mulgrew Miller
and many others. He joined Gary Thomas
' band, with whom he recorded one of his first compositions, "Pads".
, who would keep for twenty-five years the same rhythm section: Charles Ables (bass) and Steve Williams (drums). Critic Don Heckman wrote in the Los Angeles Times
(February 2, 1995) about "the importance of bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams to the Horn's sound. Working with boundless subtlety, following her every spontaneous twist and turn, they were the ideal accompanists for a performer who clearly will tolerate nothing less than perfection". His music relationship with the pianist and singer gives him the opportunity to tour the world and record with such artists as Toots Thielemans
, Branford Marsalis
and Wynton Marsalis
, Carmen McRae
, Roy Hargrove
and Miles Davis
.
, Williams moved back to New York
in 2006, where he studied with Michael Carvin
. He performs among others with the Slagle/Stryker Band, Paul Bollenbach, Roni Ben-Hur
, Larry Willis, the John Hicks Legacy Band, Bill Saxton, Bob Mover, Amy London, Sara Lazarus, Ben Vereen
, Joe Lovano
, Eddie Henderson
, Carmen Lundy, Bob Stewart, Clifton Anderson.
Known for his refinement with Shirley Horn
, he is also appreciated as a powerful and sensitive instrumentalist.
He pursues his music career with his own quintet, promoting original compositions by the band members. His first album as the leader of New Incentive was released in January 2007. The musicians are: Olivier Hutman (p), Michael Bowie (b), Donvonte McCoy (t), and Antoine Roney (s). John Hicks, Gary Bartz and Roy Hargrove are guests.
Henri Marchal in La Semaine des Spectacles January 24, 2007
Jacques Aboucaya Jazz Magazine February 2007
Other reviews
Chuck Obuchowski Hartford Courant -May 10, 2009 referring to a performance with the Joe Lovano Nonet.
As sideman
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz drummer
Jazz drumming
Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era latin jazz...
.
For twenty-five years he has collaborated with jazz pianist and singer Shirley Horn
Shirley Horn
Shirley Valerie Horn was an American jazz singer and pianist.-Biography:Encouraged by her grandmother, who was an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. At twelve, Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University and later majored from there in classical music...
.
From Washington DC
Williams was born in Rochester, New YorkRochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
and grew up in Washington, DC. He continued his music education at the University of Miami
University of Miami
The University of Miami is a private, non-sectarian university founded in 1925 with its main campus in Coral Gables, Florida, a medical campus in Miami city proper at Civic Center, and an oceanographic research facility on Virginia Key., the university currently enrolls 15,629 students in 12...
. There he joined Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander
Monty Alexander is a jazz pianist and melodica player. His playing has a strong Caribbean influence and swinging feeling, but he has also been influenced by Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, Wynton Kelly, and Ahmad Jamal.-Biography:Alexander discovered the piano at the age of 4, taking classical music...
's band, with whom he started to perform on the international scene. He furthered his music education in New York, with Billy Hart.
Back in Washington, Williams played locally with Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, Freddie Hubbard
Freddie Hubbard
Frederick Dewayne "Freddie" Hubbard was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known primarily for playing in the bebop, hard bop and post bop styles from the early 1960s and on...
, Joe Williams
Joe Williams (jazz singer)
Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
, Woodie Shaw, Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz
Gary Bartz is an American alto and soprano saxophonist and clarinetist.Bartz graduated from the Baltimore City College high school and The Juilliard School...
, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks
John Hicks (jazz pianist)
John Josephus Hicks, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, active in the New York and the international jazz scene from the mid-1960s.-Biography:...
, Larry Willis
Larry Willis
Lawrence Elliott Willis is an American jazz pianist and composer. He has performed in a wide range of styles, including jazz fusion rock music, Bebop and Avant-Garde...
, Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller is an American jazz pianist who performs in a number of jazz idioms. He began his career as member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.-Biography:...
and many others. He joined Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas
Gary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
' band, with whom he recorded one of his first compositions, "Pads".
With Shirley Horn
Then he joined Shirley HornShirley Horn
Shirley Valerie Horn was an American jazz singer and pianist.-Biography:Encouraged by her grandmother, who was an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. At twelve, Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University and later majored from there in classical music...
, who would keep for twenty-five years the same rhythm section: Charles Ables (bass) and Steve Williams (drums). Critic Don Heckman wrote in the Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the second-largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008 and the fourth most widely distributed newspaper in the country....
(February 2, 1995) about "the importance of bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams to the Horn's sound. Working with boundless subtlety, following her every spontaneous twist and turn, they were the ideal accompanists for a performer who clearly will tolerate nothing less than perfection". His music relationship with the pianist and singer gives him the opportunity to tour the world and record with such artists as Toots Thielemans
Toots Thielemans
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
, Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis
Branford Marsalis is an American saxophonist, composer and bandleader. While primarily known for his work in jazz as the leader of the Branford Marsalis Quartet, he also performs frequently as a soloist with classical ensembles and has led the group Buckshot LeFonque.-Biography:Marsalis was born...
and Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
, Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae
Carmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable...
, Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
and Miles Davis
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III was an American jazz musician, trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. Widely considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Miles Davis was, with his musical groups, at the forefront of several major developments in jazz music, including bebop, cool jazz,...
.
To NYC
After his long collaboration with Shirley HornShirley Horn
Shirley Valerie Horn was an American jazz singer and pianist.-Biography:Encouraged by her grandmother, who was an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. At twelve, Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University and later majored from there in classical music...
, Williams moved back to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 2006, where he studied with Michael Carvin
Michael Carvin
Michael W. Carvin is an American jazz drummer. He has performed with Mickey Bass, Charles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, B. B. King, Jackie McLean, Pharoah Sanders, Lonnie Liston Smith, and Clive Stevens.- Notes :...
. He performs among others with the Slagle/Stryker Band, Paul Bollenbach, Roni Ben-Hur
Roni Ben-Hur
Roni Ben-Hur is a Tunisian-Israeli bebop jazz guitarist who emigrated to the United States in 1985. His third CD, Anna's Dance, was rated by The Village Voice as one of the best jazz CDs of 2001...
, Larry Willis, the John Hicks Legacy Band, Bill Saxton, Bob Mover, Amy London, Sara Lazarus, Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen
Ben Vereen is an American actor, dancer, and singer who has appeared in numerous Broadway theatre shows. Vereen graduated from Manhattan's High School of Performing Arts.- Early years :...
, Joe Lovano
Joe Lovano
Joseph Salvatore "Joe" Lovano is a post bop jazz saxophonist, alto clarinetist, flautist, and drummer. Since the late 1980s, Lovano has been one of the world's premiere tenor saxophone players, earning a Grammy award and several nods on Down Beat magazine's critics' and readers' polls...
, Eddie Henderson
Eddie Henderson (musician)
Eddie Henderson is an American jazz trumpet and flugelhorn player. Henderson's influences include Booker Little, Clifford Brown, Woody Shaw and Miles Davis.-Family influence and early music history:...
, Carmen Lundy, Bob Stewart, Clifton Anderson.
Known for his refinement with Shirley Horn
Shirley Horn
Shirley Valerie Horn was an American jazz singer and pianist.-Biography:Encouraged by her grandmother, who was an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. At twelve, Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University and later majored from there in classical music...
, he is also appreciated as a powerful and sensitive instrumentalist.
He pursues his music career with his own quintet, promoting original compositions by the band members. His first album as the leader of New Incentive was released in January 2007. The musicians are: Olivier Hutman (p), Michael Bowie (b), Donvonte McCoy (t), and Antoine Roney (s). John Hicks, Gary Bartz and Roy Hargrove are guests.
Press
New Incentive- "The enjoyment he derives from inspiring everyone here couldn't be more obvious"... more
Mike Joyce, Washington Post, February 23, 2007 - "Steve Williams emerges as a leader with a potent modern-bop quintet"... more
Jazz Times, May 2007 - "This record is a splendor. It revivals the kind of emotion that you only feel listening to the great sessions from the sixties. The compositions, signed by Steve Williams or other musicians from the band are dazzling. It is one of those that gives the strength to get up in the morning and the will to stretch out the night"... more
Renaud Czarnes - Les Echos January 26, 2007 - "Superb debut as a leader. A true musical project, a real personality of instrumentalist and a surrounding in full sympathy with a determined leader: in short, an album of inspired jazz"...more
Jean Szlamowicz - Jazz Hot February 2007 - "Each of Steve Williams interventions –breaks and choruses- as well as his accompaniment show clearly that it was time for him to lead this kind of band"... more
Henri Marchal in La Semaine des Spectacles January 24, 2007
- "This album has to be recommended"... more
Jacques Aboucaya Jazz Magazine February 2007
- "A session of exceptional quality"... more
Discovery records - January 2007
Other reviews
- "Steve Williams' playing here generated the kind of rhythmic drive that Art Blakey excelled at during his heyday."
Chuck Obuchowski Hartford Courant -May 10, 2009 referring to a performance with the Joe Lovano Nonet.
Discography
As leader- 2006: New Incentive
As sideman
- 2008: Wild Is Love - Jamie BroumasJamie BroumasJamie Broumas is an American jazz singer, vocal instructor and arts administrator. She lives outside of Washington DC and is the Director of The Fortas Chamber Music Concerts at The John F...
- 2005: But Beautiful - Shirley Horn
- 2003: May the Music Never EndMay the Music Never EndMay the Music Never End is a 2003 studio album by Shirley Horn, it was Horn's last studio album. -Reception:The Allmusic review by Tim Sendra awarded the album four stars and said that "Horn's trademark sound is the sparse, languid torch song, with atmospheric piano chords and her gentle and...
- Shirley Horn - 2001: You're My ThrillYou're My Thrill (Shirley Horn album)You're My Thrill is a 2001 studio album by Shirley Horn, arranged by Johnny Mandel. -Reception:The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album four stars and said that "Mandel's orchestrations are paragons of subtlety, sometimes creeping almost imperceptibly like a slow moving fog upon...
- Shirley Horn - 2000: The Legacy Lives On - The Legacy Band
- 2000: Sketches of James - Various
- 2000: The Face of Love - Eugene Maslov
- 1999: Trio+Strings - John HicksJohn Hicks (jazz pianist)John Josephus Hicks, Jr. was an American jazz pianist and composer, active in the New York and the international jazz scene from the mid-1960s.-Biography:...
- 1998: American Rhapsody - Vienna Art Orchestra
- 1998: I Remember MilesI Remember MilesI Remember Miles is a 1998 studio album by Shirley Horn, recorded in tribute to Miles Davis. Horn's performance on this album won her the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance at the 41st Grammy Awards.-Reception:...
- Shirley Horn - 1997: Loving You - Shirley Horn
- 1997: Ballads from the Black Sea - Datevik
- 1996: Monterey Jazz Festival - 40 Legendary Years - Various
- 1996: The Main IngredientThe Main Ingredient (Shirley Horn album)-Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album four stars and said that "This Shirley Horn CD is a little unusual, as it was recorded at her home. The four sessions utilized some of her favorite musicians...As usual, virtually all of the songs are taken at slow tempos, with "All or...
- Shirley Horn - 1995: Ramona - Jeffery SmithJeffery SmithJeffery Smith is a baritone jazz vocal recording artist, perhaps best known for his albums on Verve, among them his distinctive debut release produced by Shirley Horn, and his self-produced records, including Down Here Below and A Little Sweeter, which was praised in a full page review in TIME as...
- 1994: Masters From Different Worlds - Clifford Jordan-Ran Blake
- 1994: I Love You, ParisI Love You, ParisI Love You, Paris is a 1992 live album by Shirley Horn, recorded at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. -Reception:The Allmusic review by Richard S. Ginell awarded the album four stars and said that "...Horn is in peak form throughout this program, often sounding exquisite and using silence and...
- Shirley Horn - 1993: Light Out of Darkness (A Tribute to Ray Charles)Light Out of Darkness (A Tribute to Ray Charles)Light out of Darkness is a 1993 studio album by Shirley Horn, recorded in tribute to Ray Charles. -Reception:...
- Shirley Horn - 1992: Here's to LifeHere's to LifeHere's to Life is a 1992 studio album by Shirley Horn, arranged by Johnny Mandel. -Track listing:# "Here's to Life" – 5:37...
- Shirley Horn - 1992: Glengarry Glen Ross (soundtrack) - Various
- 1991: For My Lady - Toots ThielemansToots ThielemansJean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans , known as Toots Thielemans, is a Belgian jazz musician well known for his guitar and harmonica playing as well as his whistling. Thielemans is credited as one of the greatest harmonica players of the 20th century...
- 1991: You Won't Forget MeYou Won't Forget MeYou Won't Forget Me is a 1991 studio album by Shirley Horn.Miles Davis made his last appearance as a sideman on this album.-Track listing:# "The Music That Makes Me Dance" - 6:32...
- Shirley Horn - 1990: Sarah: Dedicated to YouSarah: Dedicated to YouSarah: Dedicated to You is a 1991 studio album by Carmen McRae, with the Shirley Horn trio. Recorded in tribute to Sarah Vaughan, this was McRae's last recording.-Reception:...
- Carmen McRaeCarmen McRaeCarmen Mercedes McRae was an American jazz singer, composer, pianist, and actress. Considered one of the most influential jazz vocalists of the 20th century, it was her behind-the-beat phrasing and her ironic interpretations of song lyrics that made her memorable... - 1989: In Good Company - Joe WilliamsJoe Williams (jazz singer)Joe Williams was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.-Early life:...
- 1989: Close Enough for LoveClose Enough for Love (Shirley Horn album)Close Enough for Love is a 1989 studio album by Shirley Horn, her second album for Verve Records. -Reception:The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album four and a half stars and said that "Performing with her usual trio...and guest tenor Buck Hill on five of the 13 tracks, Horn is heard...
- Shirley Horn - 1988: Softly - Shirley Horn
- 1988: Code Violations - Gary ThomasGary ThomasGary Thomas is an American jazz saxophonist and flautist from Baltimore, Maryland. He is a member of Jack DeJohnette's Special Edition band and has worked with John McLaughlin, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, John Scofield, Jim Hall, Dave Holland, Greg Osby, Wayne Shorter, Ravi Coltrane, Cassandra...
- 1987: I Thought About You - Live at Vine St. - Shirley Horn
- 1987: All of Me - Shirley Horn
- 1987: The Garden of the Blues - Shirley HornShirley HornShirley Valerie Horn was an American jazz singer and pianist.-Biography:Encouraged by her grandmother, who was an amateur organist, Horn began piano lessons at the age of four. At twelve, Horn studied piano and composition at Howard University and later majored from there in classical music...