Jessica Williams
Jessica Jennifer Williams ( born March 17, 1948 in Baltimore, Maryland) is an American pianist and composer of modern jazz.
Life and work
Jessica Williams got the age of four piano lessons and learned classical piano at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, since she was seven. Later, her family moved to Philadelphia; there they played later in the quintet of Philly Joe Jones. In 1977, she moved to San Francisco, where she worked in jazz clubs with various house bands, so for Eddie Harris, Dexter Gordon, Tony Williams and Stan Getz. She also became the house pianist for the club Keystone Korner. They also took on a number of albums for the jazz label Candid, Fantasy, Timeless, Concord, Jazz Focus, Hep and MAXJAZZ. In 1997 she founded her own label, Red and Blue Recordings, from then appeared on the their albums. She also directs his own music publishing, JJW Music. 2004 and 2006 she appeared on the " Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival" in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC on. She now lives in Washington State.
According to Richard Cook and Brian Morton, they united in their style elements of the game by Art Tatum, Dave Brubeck, Bill Evans and Hampton Hawes.
Awards
For the album Nothin ' But the Truth 1986 Live At Yoshi's, Vol 1 2004 she was nominated for a Grammy; In addition, she received the National Endowment for the Arts in 1984 and 1988, the Rockefeller Grant for composition in 1989, the Alice B. Toklas Grant for Women Composers in 1992, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 1995. 2002 she was Artist of the Year in Santa Cruz County. In Billboard Magazine their album This Side Up reached # 24 in 2002 in the field of jazz albums.