Ben Williams | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Background information | |
| Born | December 28, 1984 Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation | Musician |
| Instrument | Bass |
| Years active | 2000s–present |
| Labels | Concord, Rainbow Blonde Records, |
| Website | www |
Ben Williams (born December 28, 1984, Washington, D.C.) is an American jazz bassist.
Ben Williams began playing bass at age 10, was raised in the District of Columbia, and graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Music Education from Michigan State University and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School.
In 2009, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition as judged by Ron Carter, Charlie Haden, Dave Holland, Robert Hurst, Christian McBride, and John Patitucci. [1] The honor included a recording contract with Concord Records through which he released his debut album, State of Art, in 2011, featuring saxophonist Marcus Strickland, guitarist Matthew Stevens, pianist Gerald Clayton, drummer Jamire Williams, and percussionist Etienne Charles. His album Coming of Age, was released in April 2015 featuring sidemen Marcus Strickland on tenor and soprano saxophones, Matthew Stevens on electric guitar, Christian Sands on piano, and John Davis on drums. [2]
In August 2020, Williams contributed to the live streamed recording of the singer Bilal's EP VOYAGE-19 , created remotely during the COVID-19 lockdowns. It was released the following month, with proceeds from its sales going to participating musicians in financial hardship from the pandemic. [3] [4]
Williams was a member of guitarist Pat Metheny's Unity Band, which won Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album for Unity Band in the 2013 Grammy. [5]
Williams was introduced as one of the “25 for the Future” by DownBeat magazine in 2016. [6]
| Year recorded | Title | Label | Personnel/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | State of Art | Concord | Quintet, with Marcus Strickland (saxophone), Matthew Stevens (guitar), Gerald Clayton (piano), Etienne Charles (percussion), and Jamire Williams (drums) |
| 2015 | Coming of Age | Concord | Quintet, with Marcus Strickland (tenor and soprano saxophones), Matthew Stevens (electric guitar), Christian Sands (piano), and John Davis (drums) |
| 2020 | I Am A Man | Rainbow Blonde Records | Various artists, with Ben Williams (voice and bass), Kris Bowers (piano, keyboards), David Rosenthal (guitar), Jamire Williams (drums), Justin Brown (drums), Bendji Allonce (percussion), and special guests |
| Year recorded | Leader | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Stefon Harris | Urbanus | Concord |
| 2010 | Jacky Terrasson | Push | Concord |
| 2012 | Pat Metheny | Unity Band | Nonesuch |
| 2014 | Pat Metheny | Kin | Nonesuch |
| 2016 | Pat Metheny | The Unity Sessions | Nonesuch |
| 2017 | Steve Wilson | Sit Back, Relax & Unwind | J.M.I. Recordings |
Thelonious Sphere Monk was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington.
John FrancisAnthony Pastorius III, also known as Jaco Pastorius was an American jazz bassist, composer, and producer. Widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential bassists of all time, Pastorius recorded albums as a solo artist, band leader, and as a member of the jazz fusion group Weather Report from 1976 to 1981. He also collaborated with numerous artists, including Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Joni Mitchell.
John Scofield is an American guitarist and composer. His music over a long career has blended jazz, jazz fusion, funk, blues, soul and rock. He first came to mainstream attention as part of the band of Miles Davis; he has toured and recorded with many prominent jazz artists including saxophonists Eddie Harris, Dave Liebman, Joe Henderson, and Joe Lovano; keyboardists George Duke, Joey DeFrancesco, Herbie Hancock, Larry Goldings, and Robert Glasper; fellow guitarists Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Pat Martino, and Bill Frisell; bassists Marc Johnson and Jaco Pastorius; and drummers Billy Cobham and Dennis Chambers. Outside the world of jazz, he has collaborated with Phil Lesh, Mavis Staples, John Mayer, Medeski Martin & Wood, and Gov't Mule.
Patrick Bruce Metheny is an American jazz guitarist and composer.
Antonio Sánchez is a Mexican drummer and composer. He is best known for his work with jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and as a composer of the film score for the 2014 film Birdman. The score earned him a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score and BAFTA Award for Best Film Music; he won a Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media, the Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Score, and the Satellite Award for Best Original Score.
Charles Edward Haden was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than fifty years. Haden helped to revolutionize the harmonic concept of bass playing in jazz, evolving a style that sometimes complemented the soloist, and other times moved independently, liberating bassists from a strictly accompanying role.
David Holland is an English double bassist, bass guitarist, cellist, composer and bandleader who has been performing and recording for five decades. He has lived in the United States since the early 1970s.
Question and Answer is an album by guitarist Pat Metheny with acoustic bassist Dave Holland and drummer Roy Haynes. Metheny won the 1991 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for "Change of Heart"
Robert Andre Glasper is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger. His music embodies numerous musical genres, primarily centered around jazz. Glasper has won five Grammy Awards from 11 nominations.
Marcus Strickland is an American jazz soprano, alto, and tenor saxophonist. He was born in Gainesville, Florida, and grew up in Miami. Down Beat magazine's Critics' Poll named him 'Rising Star on Tenor Saxophone' in 2010 and 'Rising Star on Soprano Saxophone' in 2008. JazzTimes magazine's Reader's Poll named him 'Best New Artist' in 2006. He placed third in the 2002 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition. Additionally, he teaches jazz saxophone at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Like Minds is a 1998 jazz album by the vibraphonist Gary Burton with the pianist Chick Corea, guitarist Pat Metheny, drummer Roy Haynes, and double bass player Dave Holland. In 1999, the album won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance, Individual or Group. Recordings took place in the Avatar Sound Studio in New York City.
Unity Band is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny along with saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams and drummer Antonio Sánchez. The album was released through Nonesuch Records on June 12, 2012, and received the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album during the 2013 Grammy Awards, marking Metheny's 20th Grammy win.
Kin is a studio album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and his Unity Group, an expanded version of 2012's Unity Band, with multi-instrumentalist Giulio Carmassi and saxophonist Chris Potter. Kin was released in February 2014 by Nonesuch Records. It was recorded in June 2013 at MSR Studios in New York.
Bop Redux is an album by pianist Hank Jones, bassist George Duvivier and drummer Ben Riley, recorded in 1977 for the Muse label.
In the 2010s in jazz, there was a noted resurgence in the popularity of jazz, particularly in the United Kingdom, where new artists rose to prominence such as Sons of Kemet, Shabaka Hutchings, Ezra Collective, and Moses Boyd Young audiences overall also listened jazz moreso than before, with streaming services reporting a spike amongst people under 30. Part of this is attributed to the rise of streaming services, and part to fusions with other genres and collaborations between jazz musicians and popular artists in other genres, such as Kamasi Washington's work with Kendrick Lamar
The Unity Sessions is an album by American jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and his Unity Band: saxophonist Chris Potter, bassist Ben Williams, keyboardist Giulio Carmassi and drummer Antonio Sánchez. A live album in a studio setting, it was recorded with a camera crew in a black box theatre without an audience. The recording was released on DVD and Blu-ray disc in 2015, then as a double CD in 2016.
Marcus Gilmore is an American jazz drummer. In 2009, New York Times critic Ben Ratliff included Gilmore in his list of drummers who are "finding new ways to look at the drum set, and at jazz itself", saying, "he created that pleasant citywide buzz when someone new and special blows through New York clubs and jam sessions".
Linda May Han Oh is an Australian jazz bassist and composer. She is currently Associate Professor at the Berklee College of Music and is also part of the Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice.
VOYAGE-19 is an EP by the American singer-songwriter Bilal, in collaboration with HighBreedMusic, a music studio and production company in Brooklyn, New York. It was released digitally on September 6, 2020, through the music publishing platform Bandcamp and is his first EP, as well as his first album-type release since 2015's In Another Life.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
