"One of the greatest jazz pianists I have ever heard." - DAVE BRUBECK
"Jessica is a beautiful player." - McCOY TYNER
"The most important pianist to arrive since Bill Evans." - ALUN MORGAN, GRAMOPHONE
"I'm running out of superlatives to describe her playing!" - HUMPHREY LITTLETON, BBC
"A vibrant force on the contemporary music scene." - ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
"Jessica Williams is one of the great jazz pianists of our time." - Bill Smith, The Oregonian
"Jessica Williams is one of the most remarkable pianists in jazz today. Her apparently limitless technique allows her to express her fresh and colorful ideas spontaneously." - Scott Yanow, JAZZIZ, author, The All Music Guide
"Over the past few years I have written some thousands of words in appreciation of this great artist, but I never cease to be amazed at her phenomenal technique, good taste, imagination, sense of fun, swing, and, above all, her ability to make everything sound bright, new, fresh, and exciting." - Pat Hawes, JAZZ JOURNAL International
"Certainly she is the most poetic of all living jazz pianists... everyone who has heard her play is a little bit in love with her." - Jeff Simon, Buffalo News
"Apart from phenomenal technique and a hugely fertile imagination, she has the rare ability to draw listeners into her private musical world and hold them there, enthralled." - Dave Gelly, THE LONDON OBSERVER
"This Side Up" is among "Best Jazz CDs of 2002" in the VILLAGE VOICE, Gary Giddins
"Jessica Williams ought be routinely mentioned as a living giant of jazz piano - Bob Powers
"One of the genuine highlights of my listening year so far." - Shaun Dale of Jazz Review
"Anyone who's heard her complex swing can vouch for this hyperbole: Jessica Williams is one of the great jazz pianists of our time. It's no secret that she's one of the more versatile and astonishing pianists out there." - George Fendel at Jazzscene Magazine
"This is easy. Jessica Williams doesn't make bad records." - JAZZNOW, Lawrence Brazier
"On BLUE FIRE Jessica Williams proves once again that she is one of her generation's leading jazz pianists." - Don Williamson, 52nd Street Jazz
"Greatness is a rare commodity. Only achieved by that rare few with the ability to take their talent and bring it into a realm that others can only dream about. Jessica Williams possesses such greatness." - Rick Overall, The Ottawa Sun
"A brilliantly incisive player with a deft sure touch, Williams' command of her instrument is outstanding. But she is far more than a superb technician. Her intelligent, strikingly original improvisations rest upon a sure knowledge of the meaning of jazz. Her playing reveals not only her admiration for Thelonious Monk and Bud Powell but also the genius of earlier giants such as Earl "Fatha" Hines and Art Tatum." - THE VIRGIN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ - Colin Larkin
"Ms.Williams is the equal of any pianist today. Which is saying a great deal in a Jazz world full of brilliant pianists. As good as piano Jazz gets." -Stephen Calhoun
"There are some things right with jazz, and Jessica Williams is definitely one. For those of you who are not hip to her, I will say on record that I think she is the finest pianist of our time. And her records are bar none, the most consistently immaculate and for your hard-earned dollars, a Jessica Williams album is a no brainer" - Fred Jung, All About Jazz
"Jessica Williams! This Lady simply is one of the top jazz piano players of this young 21th century; certainly one of the six best piano players, with Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, Ahmad Jamal, Randy Weston, and Abdullah Ibrahim. Each record she makes is a gem. You'll listen to very great music, played by an immense artist, one of the greatest piano players in the history of jazz, like her underrated colleague, and homonym, Mary Lou Williams." - Jean-Marie Juif, Besancon, France
"I could review Jessica Williams' newest release in a single phrase - one of the finest solo piano albums I've ever heard. Impeccable taste, remarkable technique, pristine sound and boundless inspiration; but even those descriptions can't adequately delineate the entire package." - Jack Bowers, All About Jazz
"Certainly she is the most poetic of all living jazz pianists... everyone who has heard her play is a little bit in love with her." - Buffalo News
"Jessica Williams is an outstanding jazz talent, and probably the finest improvising pianist in jazz today." - Pat Hawes, Jazz Journal International
"Jessica Williams is unquestionably one of the giants of modern jazz piano. She has matured into a genuine master instrumentalist, able to mine the deepest meaning out of any musical idea. She is able to build on those ideas through her supreme melodic instincts and innate sense of structure, attaining that rarest of musical designations: storyteller. - Tim and Mike Smith, Harambee Church Publications
Jessica Williams is a pianist and composer who has spent the last several decades creating strikingly original, immediately identifiable, mythically beautiful music.
Dave Brubeck calls her "one of the greatest pianists I've ever heard."
She is a holder of the distinguished Guggenheim Fellowship, has released almost 40 award-winning cds and records in a career spanning as many years, and is considered by many critics to be one of the most important improvising pianists of this age.
Jessica Williams began playing piano at the age of four, at her grandmother's house. She remembers the powerful experience of playing her first note and seeing a ball of brilliant color float to the ceiling and gradually dissipate.
Music has since been a very visual experience for her.
At seven she began formal lessons. At nine, showing a vast gift for music far beyond her peers, she was enrolled in the Peabody Preparatory, and eventually the Conservatory, where she studied piano with a secretly moonlighting jazz musician, Richard Aitken; theory, ear training (with the great George Bellows), and composition.
Her first jazz experience was hearing Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". Her second experience was hearing Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue".
At 17 she moved to Philadelphia and began playing in jazz venues; by 28 she was a member of the Philly Joe Jones Quintet.
Now, she travels all over the world, playing in festivals and concert venues, and loves to make people happy with her blessed, God-given Gift.
Scott Yanow's ALL MUSIC GUIDE has this to say about Jessica Williams:
"Due to her being based in Northern California (now, Detroit; next, who knows?), Jessica Williams is a bit underrated, but (on evidence of her sets for Jazz Focus and Hep) she is one of the top jazz pianists of today.
Williams is a powerful virtuoso whose complete control of the keyboard, wit, and solid sense of swing have combined to make her a particularly notable player. She started taking piano lessons when she was four and was gigging as a teenager. Williams took extensive classical lessons but also gigged with Philly Joe Jones in Philadelphia before moving to San Francisco in the 70's.
"Although she appeared on Charlie Rouse's final record and gigged steadily, Williams was largely off record (outside of her own private label) until re-emerging in the late '80s as a brilliant solo acoustic player.
"She is a giant whose many dates for Jazz Focus (five of its first ten releases feature Williams) and Hep are consistently brilliant."
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