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“There’s a jazz star on the horizon…and his
name is Oliver Williams”
---Jam
Sessions Newspaper
About The Artist:
One winter night in Chicago, piano great McCoy Tyner was listening to Larry
smith’s live WBEZ jazz show when he heard a pianist so impressively talented
that he drove to the studio to meet him. That pianist was Oliver Williams.
Destined to be a jazz legend, Oliver Williams has spent most of his career
breaking barriers on the piano with stylistic arrangements that capture the
imagination and hypnotize the mind. With original and refreshing
compositions, he tells magnificent stories without the use of lyrics.
His original compositions have proven to be the
source of his success. His songs offer distinctive twists of melody within
unique rhythmic structures with an inclination for original chord changes
that recalls the maverick pianists influenced by Thelonious Monk.
To develop and improvise upon his music,
Williams has evolved a piano style that, while suggesting bebop in it’s flow
and the likes of Oscar Peterson in it’s fine technique, is nevertheless a
personal style abounding in musical delights. Funky and soulful, tender and
loving, with a distinctively vivid piano sound and a very “together” rhythm
section, Oliver Williams offers music of originality, swing, and truly
musical energy.
---Jam Sessions Newspaper
“Built upon strong, compulsive bass lines,
Oliver Williams’ music possesses a strong storytelling feel…and as free as
Williams’ solo flights can be, he always keeps the mood and structure of the
tune in the foreground. Listening to him, one thinks at odd moments of Mary
Lou Williams, Less McCann, and Ahmad Jamal…but the final point of reference
is always Oliver Williams”
---Chicago Tribune Overnight Chicago by Larry
Kart
The
Performer:
Oliver Williams and the piano have been a team for over 40
years. His music has been a part of the Chicago jazz scene at such notable
clubs as The park West Green Dolphin Street, The Green Mill, No Exit Café,
The Cotton club, Pop’s for Champagne, just to name a few. Mr. Williams has
worked with a number of Chicago’s finest artists, including jazz diva Sherry
Scott, song stylist Frieda Lee, jazz/pop singer Anne Pringle, and Jackie
Allen of the Old Town School of Music.
As a composer/songwriter Oliver Williams has been a featured
artist on WBEZ Jazz Radio for Chicago, Cable TV for N.W. Indiana, National
Public Radio, and even appeared with the likes of jazz greats Wynton
Marsalis, Art Blakely, and Dexter Gordon at the Chicago International Jazz
Festival after which the Chicago tribune in it’s review of the festival’s
performers raved about Mr. Williams, calling him “one of the year’s truly
great discoveries.”
Having recently completed his third CD, a live concert recorded
at his Alma Mater, Concordia University, Oliver Williams is performing with
his new group The Spirit Jazz Connection as will as appearing with scat
singer Patti Shaffner. Past performance work with the “Afro-Cuban” group
Crosswind and the Calypso-Caribbean group Island Dreams has set the tone for
this newest re-invention of Oliver’s music. Vital and passionate, vividly
pictorial, and rhythmically powerful, this latest “incarnation of Williams’
work most certain reveals an artist poised for taking his place amongst the
composer-performers that had once shaped his vision and now call him to join
them in shaping that of others.
Discography:
Piano Art
A
collection of the composer’s favorite works performed on solo piano, this
recording provides the most intimate of insights into the true “soul” of
both the composer and his compositions. A truly inspired performance, this
recording is destined to be the defining master work of this emerging
artist.
Timeless
Recorded
live and featuring the talents of Chris Greene on saxophone, Richard Armandi
on bass, and Leon Joyce on drums, this collection of all original work spans
the full spectrum of Oliver Williams’ twenty plus years of composition. The
energy and excitement of this live concert is electrifying and a testimonial
to the true “connection” of the composer and his select gathering of three
of the “hippest” jazzmen in the Chicago area.
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