JESSICA WILLIAMS - March 17, 1948 - March 12, 2022
Obituary & Appreciation by Jack Kenny
Jessica Williams was a remarkable jazz pianist. Dave Brubeck said: ‘She was one of the greatest jazz pianists that I have ever heard.’ In spite of that, many people hardly knew her. She lacked the publicity gene and she did not attract any major labels. She was more interested in music. I was fortunate enough to see her three times: twice in Oxford, one of the concerts was recorded and once at a club in Seattle. Jessica had little time for the music business and consequently the music business had little time for her. There is no doubt that she was a difficult person, there are some stories of temperamental occasions and the complications of her life are yet to be told. When I talked to her in Seattle, she was not complimentary about Ronnie Scott’s or the man who promoted her concerts in the UK. Like Ornette she saw herself as an artist and resented the way that she was treated. Eventually she promoted and recorded herself. At one time she sold her recordings by mail. She even booked and organised her own concerts.
Jessica Williams was born on March 17, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music at John Hopkins University, Baltimore.
As a teenager she started playing in clubs as a teenager. Her first album ‘Portal of Antrim’, was released in 1976. Since then, she has made many albums. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1988, 1992; She played in the bands of Leroy Vinegar, Philly Jo Jones, Stan Getz, Tony Williams and Charlie Rouse.
She was the house pianist at the Keystone Korner, in San Francisco for a time. She has also led her own trios, and has released more than seventy albums under her name. She idolised Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Duke Ellington, Roland Kirk, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Art Tatum. Many of the compositions were inspired by the jazz masters but they were all filtered through her vast technique and a way of playing that was completely her own. Reviews of her albums are often accompanied by the reviewer asking: ‘Why isn’t she better known?’ Her music was soaked in the jazz traditions and she could move fluently from the joyful, to melancholy. The range of her references was vast and the wit and exuberance of her music is a delight. Her playing is characterised by clarity, sincerity, respect for both the piano and for piano players who went before her. She does not play notes that she does not mean.
In an interview Williams said: ‘I had lost too much in the jazz world, because it was too competitive. It was male dominated and sexist and racist and too fraught with dangers to continue to do that. I just had to get out of that whole situation. And first, I had to get out of nightclubs. They'll kill you. They'll kill anybody.’ She stopped touring, and eventually stopped playing, plagued as she was by severe back problems. It was rumoured that in recent times she had to sell her grand piano to pay for medical treatment. Her writings, her sleeve notes, reveal a sensitive probing mind, with a deep concern with the state of the world and it is probable that her final days were worsened by the savagery inflicted on the Ukraine people.
The life of Jessica Williams poses many questions. Why was a piano player with such talent so neglected? Did gender play a role? Is there something wrong with a jazz world that makes a sensitive individual feel so alienated?
Jessica Williams was a remarkable jazz pianist. Dave Brubeck said: ‘She was one of the greatest jazz pianists that I have ever heard.’ In spite of that, many people hardly knew her. She lacked the publicity gene and she did not attract any major labels. She was more interested in music. I was fortunate enough to see her three times: twice in Oxford, one of the concerts was recorded and once at a club in Seattle. Jessica had little time for the music business and consequently the music business had little time for her. There is no doubt that she was a difficult person, there are some stories of temperamental occasions and the complications of her life are yet to be told. When I talked to her in Seattle, she was not complimentary about Ronnie Scott’s or the man who promoted her concerts in the UK. Like Ornette she saw herself as an artist and resented the way that she was treated. Eventually she promoted and recorded herself. At one time she sold her recordings by mail. She even booked and organised her own concerts.
Jessica Williams was born on March 17, 1948, in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music at John Hopkins University, Baltimore.
As a teenager she started playing in clubs as a teenager. Her first album ‘Portal of Antrim’, was released in 1976. Since then, she has made many albums. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1995; National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships in 1988, 1992; She played in the bands of Leroy Vinegar, Philly Jo Jones, Stan Getz, Tony Williams and Charlie Rouse.
She was the house pianist at the Keystone Korner, in San Francisco for a time. She has also led her own trios, and has released more than seventy albums under her name. She idolised Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Sonny Rollins, Duke Ellington, Roland Kirk, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane and Art Tatum. Many of the compositions were inspired by the jazz masters but they were all filtered through her vast technique and a way of playing that was completely her own. Reviews of her albums are often accompanied by the reviewer asking: ‘Why isn’t she better known?’ Her music was soaked in the jazz traditions and she could move fluently from the joyful, to melancholy. The range of her references was vast and the wit and exuberance of her music is a delight. Her playing is characterised by clarity, sincerity, respect for both the piano and for piano players who went before her. She does not play notes that she does not mean.
In an interview Williams said: ‘I had lost too much in the jazz world, because it was too competitive. It was male dominated and sexist and racist and too fraught with dangers to continue to do that. I just had to get out of that whole situation. And first, I had to get out of nightclubs. They'll kill you. They'll kill anybody.’ She stopped touring, and eventually stopped playing, plagued as she was by severe back problems. It was rumoured that in recent times she had to sell her grand piano to pay for medical treatment. Her writings, her sleeve notes, reveal a sensitive probing mind, with a deep concern with the state of the world and it is probable that her final days were worsened by the savagery inflicted on the Ukraine people.
The life of Jessica Williams poses many questions. Why was a piano player with such talent so neglected? Did gender play a role? Is there something wrong with a jazz world that makes a sensitive individual feel so alienated?
Selected Discography
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1990 And Then, There's This — Timeless
1992 Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 21 — Concord Jazz 1993 Next Step — Hep 1993 Arrival — Jazz Focus 1994 Momentum — Jazz Focus 1994 Song That I Heard — HEP 1994 In the Pocket — Hep 1994 Encounters — Jazz Focus 1995 Inventions — Jazz Focus 1995 Joy — Jazz Focus 1995 Intuition — Jazz Focus 1996 Gratitude — Candid 1996 Jessica's Blues — Jazz Focus |
1996 Jessica's Blues — Jazz Focus
1997 Higher Standards — Candid 1998 Encounters, Vol. 2 — Jazz Focus 1998 Joyful Sorrow: A Solo Tribute to Bill Evans — BlackHawk 1999 In the Key of Monk — Jazz Focus 1999 Ain't Misbehavin' — Candid 2000 Jazz in the Afternoon — Candid 2000 Blue Fire — Jazz Focus 2001 I Let a Song Go out of My Heart — Hep 2001 Some Ballads, Some Blues — Jazz Focus 2002 This Side Up — MAXJAZZ 2003 All Alone — MAXJAZZ |
