Buster Williams

All Music Guide:

One of jazz's most valuable sidemen, Buster Williams has flourished through many periods of changing fashions in jazz. Best known since the 1980s for his solid, dark tone and highly refined technique on the acoustic bass, the jazz-rock generation knew him as the mobile anchor of Herbie Hancock's exploratory Mwandishi Sextet from 1969 to 1973, doubling on acoustic and electric basses sometimes attached to electronic effects devices.

Williams learned both the double bass and the drums from his father, but having been enormously impressed by Oscar Pettiford's recordings, he ultimately decided to concentrate on the bass. After studying theory and composition at Philadelphia's Combs College of Music in 1959, Williams joined Jimmy Heath's unit the following year and played with Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt in 1960 and 1961, as well as behind singers Dakota Staton (1961-1962), Betty Carter (1962-1963), Sarah Vaughan (1963), and Nancy Wilson (1964-1968). The gig with Wilson prompted a move to Los Angeles, where the Jazz Crusaders used him for concert dates and recordings from 1967 to 1969, and he also played briefly with Miles Davis in 1967 and the Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land quintet. Moving to New York in 1969, Williams joined Hancock's sextet, appearing on all of his Warner Bros. albums, as well as The Prisoner (Blue Note), Sextant (Columbia) and with trumpeter Eddie Henderson's spinoff group on Capricorn and Blue Note. Over a five-year period (1976-1981), Williams led numerous recording sessions for Muse, Denon, and Buddah while continuing to freelance before, during, and after that span. In the '80s, he was a member of both the Timeless All-Stars and Sphere, writing a number of compositions for the latter. Among the musicians for whom he has played from the '80s onward are Kenny Barron, Frank Morgan, Stanley Cowell, Steve Turre, Emily Remler, and Larry Coryell.

Wikipedia:

Charles Anthony Williams (born April 17, 1942 in Camden, New Jersey) is an American jazz bassist.

Biography

Williams has gained prestige among jazz musicians as a solid supportive player. Since the early 1960s, he has made subtle swing, a precise rhythm and superb technique the landmark of his playing. He started his professional career in Philadelphia with Jimmy Heath, then played and recorded with the Gene Ammons/Sonny Stitt quintet (1960–61). After that, he played in Los Angeles for the vocalists Betty Carter, Sarah Vaughan and Nancy Wilson (until late '60's), recording with Vaughn and Wilson, and also with The Jazz Crusaders and the Bobby Hutcherson/Harold Land quintet while working with Miles Davis.

In 1969, Williams moved to New York City and joined the Herbie Hancock Mwandishi Sextet for the next three years, doubling in acoustic and electric basses, and also worked with Mary Lou Williams (1973–75) and Ron Carter's quartet (1977–78). Since the 1980s, Williams has appeared as a sideman in a significative number of session records with notable jazz instrumentalists and vocalists, although opportunities to lead his own sessions are rare.

Williams also has collaborated with Chet Baker, Kenny Barron, Sathima Bea Benjamin, Larry Coryell, Stanley Cowell, Gil Evans, Frank Foster, Dexter Gordon, Joe Farrell, Shirley Horn, Illinois Jacquet, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Harold Mabern, Branford Marsalis, Carmen McRae, Frank Morgan, Hilton Ruiz, Woody Shaw, Steve Turre, McCoy Tyner, and the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra.

In 2008, Williams began releasing a series of live albums exclusively for download through his company, Buster Williams Productions. Live Volume 1 was released June 2008.