About Jessica WIlliams
DAVE BRUBECK calls Jessica Williams "One of the greatest jazz pianists I have ever heard."
McCOY TYNER says "Jessica is a beautiful player!"
ROLLING STONE Magazine calls her "A vibrant force on the contemporary music scene."
This two-time Grammy Nominee was born in Baltimore and classically trained at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She moved to Philadelphia during her teens and worked with the great Philly Joe Jones, drummer for the Miles Davis Quintet. In her twenties, she moved to the West Coast, where she played in the bands of Eddie Harris, Dexter Gordon, Tony Williams, Stan Getz, Big Nick Nicholaus, Airto and Flora, Charlie Rouse, John Abercrombie, Leroy Vinnegar, and others.
She has released over 45 albums in a career spanning as many years. She has received two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts; a Rockefeller Grant for composing; the Alice B. Toklas Grant for Women Composers and the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
In Europe, she scored Jazz Record of the Year for 2 consecutive years in the Jazz Journal International Reader's Poll. She has been presented the Keys to the City of Sacramento, receiving four grants from the Sacramento Arts Commission. She was also presented the Keys to the City of San Mateo. In 2002 she was chosen Artist of the Year in Santa Cruz County, for her free musical service to elderly members of the community, and for donating support to the Women's Shelter of Watsonville, California.
During the last four decades, Jessica has produced more than 300 original compositions; she has recorded for Jazz Focus, Candid, Concord, Fantasy, Timeless, Maxjazz, Origin Arts, and her own company, Red and Blue Music. She owns her own publishing company, JJW Music, and runs her own successful Internet business, jessicawilliams.com
She has been a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and on Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz. She has written scores for PBS and HBO specials and has received more than twenty ASCAP Special Awards for her prolific compositional output.
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