Richard Williams (musician)
Encyclopedia
Richard Gene Williams was an American jazz
trumpeter.
Williams was born in Galveston, Texas
, and played tenor saxophone early in his life before picking up trumpet as a teenager. He played in local Texas bands and attended Wiley College
, where he majored in music. After serving in the Air Force from 1952–56, he toured Europe with Lionel Hampton
, and upon his return took a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music
.
Williams played with Charles Mingus
at the Newport Jazz Festival
in 1959, and recorded with Mingus starting in that year. He recorded his only session as a leader, New Horn in Town, in 1960, released on Candid Records
, and featuring Reggie Workman
, Leo Wright
, Richard Wyands
, and Bobby Thomas. Williams was a sideman on a large number of releases for Blue Note
, Impulse!, New Jazz
, Riverside
, and Atlantic
in the 1960s. Among the musicians he worked with are Mingus, Oliver Nelson
, Grant Green
, Lou Donaldson
, Yusef Lateef
, Gigi Gryce
, Duke Jordan
, Noah Howard
, and the big band
s of Duke Ellington
, Gil Evans
, Thad Jones
and Mel Lewis
, Sam Rivers
and Clark Terry
.
He also found work on Broadway
in pit orchestras, most notably The Me Nobody Knows
and The Wiz
. He appears on the original Broadway cast recordings of both musicals. Williams also led bands under his own leadership, playing in New York jazz clubs such as Sweet Basil's, the Village Vanguard, and Gerald's. In addition to jazz trumpet, Williams also performed with classical orchestras, playing piccolo trumpet and fluglehorn.
Richard Williams died on November 4, 1985 from kidney cancer in his Jamaica, NY home.
With Booker Ervin
With Bill Evans
and George Russell
With Rahsaan Roland Kirk
With Yusef Lateef
With Charles Mingus
and Mingus Dynasty
With The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpeter.
Williams was born in Galveston, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, and played tenor saxophone early in his life before picking up trumpet as a teenager. He played in local Texas bands and attended Wiley College
Wiley College
Wiley College is a four-year, private, historically black, liberal arts college located on the west side of Marshall, Texas. Founded in 1873 by the Methodist Episcopal Church's Bishop Isaac Wiley and certified in 1882 by the Freedman's Aid Society, it is notable as one of the oldest predominantly...
, where he majored in music. After serving in the Air Force from 1952–56, he toured Europe with Lionel Hampton
Lionel Hampton
Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
, and upon his return took a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music
Manhattan School of Music
The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...
.
Williams played with Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
at the Newport Jazz Festival
Newport Jazz Festival
The Newport Jazz Festival is a music festival held every summer in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. It was established in 1954 by socialite Elaine Lorillard, who, together with husband Louis Lorillard, financed the festival for many years. The couple hired jazz impresario George Wein to organize the...
in 1959, and recorded with Mingus starting in that year. He recorded his only session as a leader, New Horn in Town, in 1960, released on Candid Records
Candid Records
Candid Records was founded as a subsidiary of Archie Bleyer's Cadence label in New York City in 1960. The jazz writer and civil rights activist, Nat Hentoff, worked as the label's A&R director, aiming to create a representative catalog of the jazz of the day...
, and featuring Reggie Workman
Reggie Workman
Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
, Leo Wright
Leo Wright
Leo Wright was an American jazz musician who played alto saxophone, flute and clarinet...
, Richard Wyands
Richard Wyands
Richard Wyands is a hard bop pianist best known as a side-man. He began playing in his teens in San Francisco, but later moved to New York City. He worked with Kenny Burrell in the 1960s and also played in Gigi Gryce's quintet...
, and Bobby Thomas. Williams was a sideman on a large number of releases for Blue Note
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
, Impulse!, New Jazz
Prestige Records
Prestige Records was a jazz record label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock. The company was located at 203 South Washington Avenue in Bergenfield, New Jersey, and recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them under the names of several...
, Riverside
Riverside Records
Riverside Records was a United States record label specializing in jazz. Founded by Orrin Keepnews and Bill Grauer under his firm Bill Grauer Productions, Inc. in 1953, the label was a major presence in the jazz record industry for a decade...
, and Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
in the 1960s. Among the musicians he worked with are Mingus, Oliver Nelson
Oliver Nelson
Oliver Edward Nelson was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, arranger and composer.-Early life and career:...
, Grant Green
Grant Green
Grant Green was a jazz guitarist and composer....
, Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson
Lou Donaldson is a jazz alto saxophonist. He was born in Badin, North Carolina. He is best known for his soulful, bluesy approach to playing the alto saxophone, although in his formative years he was, as many were of the bebop era, heavily influenced by Charlie Parker.His first recordings were...
, Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef
Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...
, Gigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader.His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his...
, Duke Jordan
Duke Jordan
Irving Sidney "Duke" Jordan was an American jazz pianist.-Biography:An imaginative and gifted pianist, Jordan was a regular member of Charlie Parker's so-called "classic quintet" , featuring Miles Davis...
, Noah Howard
Noah Howard
Noah Howard was an American free jazz alto saxophonist.-Biography:An American born in New Orleans, Howard played music from childhood in his church. He first learned trumpet and later switching to alto, tenor and soprano saxophone. He was an innovator influenced by John Coltrane and Albert Ayler...
, and the big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
s of Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
, Gil Evans
Gil Evans
Gil Evans was a jazz pianist, arranger, composer and bandleader, active in the United States...
, Thad Jones
Thad Jones
Thaddeus Joseph Jones was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader.-Biography:Thad Jones was born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten . Thad Jones was a self taught musician, performing professionally by the age of sixteen...
and Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis
Mel Lewis was an American drummer, jazz musician and band leader. He was born Melvin Sokoloff in Buffalo, New York to Russian immigrant parents....
, Sam Rivers
Sam Rivers
Samuel Carthorne Rivers , is an American jazz musician and composer. He performs on soprano and tenor saxophones, bass clarinet, flute, harmonica and piano....
and Clark Terry
Clark Terry
Clark Terry is an American swing and bop trumpeter, a pioneer of the fluegelhorn in jazz, educator, NEA Jazz Masters inductee, and recipient of the 2010 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award...
.
He also found work on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
in pit orchestras, most notably The Me Nobody Knows
The Me Nobody Knows
The Me Nobody Knows is a musical with music by Gary William Friedman and lyrics by Will Holt. It debuted off-Broadway in 1970 and then transferred to Broadway. It received the Obie Award and a Tony Award nomination for Best Musical...
and The Wiz
The Wiz
The Wiz: The Super Soul Musical "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" is a musical with music and lyrics by Charlie Smalls and book by William F. Brown. It is a retelling of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in the context of African American culture. It opened on October 21, 1974 at the Morris A...
. He appears on the original Broadway cast recordings of both musicals. Williams also led bands under his own leadership, playing in New York jazz clubs such as Sweet Basil's, the Village Vanguard, and Gerald's. In addition to jazz trumpet, Williams also performed with classical orchestras, playing piccolo trumpet and fluglehorn.
Richard Williams died on November 4, 1985 from kidney cancer in his Jamaica, NY home.
As Sideman
With Gigi GryceGigi Gryce
Gigi Gryce was an American saxophonist, flautist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, educator, and big band bandleader.His performing career was relatively short and, in comparison to other musicians of his...
- The Hap'nin's (Prestige, 1960)
- Saying Somethin'! (Prestige, 1960)
- The Rat Race Blues (Prestige, 1960)
- Reminiscin (Mercury, 1960)
With Booker Ervin
Booker Ervin
Booker Telleferro Ervin II was an American tenor saxophone player. He was perhaps best known for his association with bassist Charles Mingus....
- Cookin'Cookin' (Booker Ervin album)Cookin' is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin featuring performances recorded in 1960 for the Savoy label.-Reception:The Allmusic review awarded the album 4½ stars.-Track listing:# "Dee Da Do" - 7:32# "Mr...
(Savoy, 1960) - The In BetweenThe In BetweenThe In Between is an album by American jazz saxophonist Booker Ervin recorded in 1968 and released on the Blue Note label.-Reception:The Allmusic review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album 4 stars and stated "The music rarely reaches avant-garde territory -- instead, it's edgy, volatile...
(Blue Note, 1968)
With Bill Evans
Bill Evans
William John Evans, known as Bill Evans was an American jazz pianist. His use of impressionist harmony, inventive interpretation of traditional jazz repertoire, and trademark rhythmically independent, "singing" melodic lines influenced a generation of pianists including: Chick Corea, Herbie...
and George Russell
- Living TimeLiving TimeLiving Time is an album by the Bill Evans George Russell Orchestra recorded in 1972 and released on the Columbia label, featuring performances by Evans with an orchestra conducted by Russell. The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow awarded the album 2 stars and stated "The music on this set...
(Columbia, 1972)
With Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Rahsaan Roland Kirk was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist who played tenor saxophone, flute and many other instruments...
- Left & RightLeft & Right (album)Left & Right is an album by jazz multi-instrumentalist Roland Kirk. It was originally released on the Atlantic label in 1968 and features performances by Kirk with Jim Buffington, Julius Watkins, Frank Wess, Ron Burton, Vernon Martin and Roy Haynes with Warren Smith, Richard Williams, Dick...
(Atlantic, 1968)
With Yusef Lateef
Yusef Lateef
Dr. Yusef Lateef is an American Grammy Award-winning jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, educator and a spokesman for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.Although Lateef's main instruments are the tenor saxophone and flute, he is known for...
- Jazz 'Round the WorldJazz 'Round the WorldJazz 'Round the World is an album by American jazz multi-instrumentalist Yusef Lateef featuring performances recorded in 1963 for the Impulse! label.-Reception:...
(Impulse!, 1963)
With Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
and Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty
Mingus Dynasty is an album by Charles Mingus, recorded and released in 1959, and was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.- Track listing :All compositions by Charles Mingus except where noted.# "Slop"# "Diane"# "Song With Orange"...
- The Black Saint and the Sinner LadyThe Black Saint and the Sinner Lady-Personnel:Musicians*Charles Mingus – bass, piano, composer*Jerome Richardson – soprano and baritone saxophone, flute*Charlie Mariano – alto saxophone*Dick Hafer – tenor saxophone, flute*Rolf Ericson – trumpet...
(Impulse!, 1963) - Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus MingusMingus Mingus Mingus Mingus MingusMingus Mingus Mingus Mingus Mingus is a 1963 album by jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus.- Historical Context :...
(Impulse!, 1963) - ReincarnationReincarnationReincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
(Soul Note, SN1042, 1982)
With The Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra
- Presenting Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and the Jazz OrchestraPresenting Thad Jones / Mel Lewis and the Jazz OrchestraPresenting Thad Jones / Mel Lewis & The Jazz Orchestra is a 1966 big band jazz album recorded by the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and released on the Solid State Records label. It is the debut release by the orchestra...
(Solid State, 1966) - Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, The Jazz OrchestraPresenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, The Jazz OrchestraPresenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones / Mel Lewis, The Jazz Orchestra is a 1966 big band jazz album recorded by Joe Williams with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and released on the Solid State Records label.-Track listing:...
(Solid State, 1966) - Live at the Village Vanguard (Solid State, 1967)
- The Big Band Sound of Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth BrownThe Big Band Sound of Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth BrownThe Big Band Sound of Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Featuring Miss Ruth Brown, also released as Fine Brown Frame, is a 1968 Solid State Records recording of vocalist Ruth Brown with the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.-Track listing:...
(Solid State, 1968) - Monday NightMonday NightMonday Night, Recorded Live at the Village Vanguard is a 1968 big band jazz album recorded at the Village Vanguard club in New York City by the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra and released on the Solid State Records label...
(Solid State, 1968) - Central Park North (Solid State, 1969)