Jessica Williams
Jessica Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland, United States on March 17th, 1948 and is the Pianist. At the age of 76, Jessica Williams biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.
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Jessica Williams (born March 17, 1948) is an American jazz pianist and composer.
Early life
Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 17, 1948. She started playing the piano at age four, began music lessons with a private teacher at five, and at age seven was enrolled into the Peabody Preparatory. She studied classical music and ear training with Richard Aitken and George Bellows at the Peabody Conservatory of Music.
Williams showed an ability to see each note's color as she heard it, consistent with synesthesia. She discussed how this inspired her early interest in the piano in a televised interview with the BBC. Williams also had the ability to play anything she heard. At age twelve, she was listening to Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus. She knew she was destined to become a jazz pianist.
Williams began performing jazz in her teens, playing with Richie Cole, Buck Hill, and Mickey Fields. In a radio interview with Marian McPartland on NPR's Piano Jazz, she stated that her main influences were not pianists, but horn players, especially Miles Davis and John Coltrane.
Musical career
Williams began performing regularly with the "Philly Joe" Jones band in New Jersey and with Lex Humphries in Philadelphia and New York City before heading to the West Coast in October 1976.
Williams moved to San Francisco, where she appeared in house bands at the Keystone Korner in 1977. She performed with Eddie Harris, Tony Williams, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, and Charlie Haden, later leading her own jazz band and performing regularly for many decades.
Williams founded Red and Blue Recordings in 1997. JJW Music/ASCAP, as well as an internet mail order service, were also launched by her publishing firm JJW Music/ASCAP.
Williams appeared at the "Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival" in Washington, D.C., in 2004, 2005, The Purcell Room in London, The Bern Jazz Festival, The Montefo Jazz Festival, The Montey Quartet, The Monterey Hall in Atlanta, and hundreds of other venues around the world, including The New Morning in London, Spivey Hall in Georgia, and hundreds of other venues. She appeared on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross and Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz, as well as being interviewed by the BBC in Brecon, Wales.
Williams had a Spinal fusion with internal equipment at Swedish Hospital's Neurosurgery Unit in Seattle, WA, in 2012, but she had to return to work. She lived in the Pacific Northwest with her husband but no longer toured. She continued to produce new music, including experimental music and neoclassical jazz, and she remained a lifelong promoter of civil rights.
Awards and honors
- Grammy nomination, Nothin' But the Truth, 1986
- Grammy nomination, Live at Yoshi's, Vol. 1, 2004
- Grant, National Endowment for the Arts
- Grant, Rockefeller Foundation, 1989
- Grant, Alice B. Toklas Grant for Women Composers, 1992
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1995
- Keys to the City, Sacramento, California
- Keys to the City, San Mateo, California
- Artist of the Year, Santa Cruz County, California, 2002
- Jazz Record of the Year, Jazz Journal International Reader's Poll