Jazz Unlimited for January 10, 2016 will be “The Career of Tony Williams.” A child prodigy, drummer Tony Williams was born in Chicago in 1945 but was raised in Boston. A student of Alan Dawson, Williams was playing professionally at age 13 with Sam Rivers and other advanced musicians. At 17, he joined the Miles Davis Quintet and revolutionized the way rhythm sections have played since the mid-1960’s. According to Drummer magazine, his playing suggested melody, counter-point, and harmony, which has been a revelation to most drummers since the 1960s. He was one of the pioneers of jazz-rock fusion. We will hear him with Two Miles Davis quintets, Tommy Flanagan, Stan Getz & Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Grachan Moncur III, Hank Jones, Charles Lloyd, Don Pullen, Sam Rivers, Larry Young, John McLaughlin, Stanley Clarke, Andrew Hill and the Gil Evans Orchestra. Tony Williams died tragically in 1997 of a heart attack following routine gall bladder surgery.
The Slide Show contains my photographs of some of the artists heard on this Show.
This Archive of the show will be available until the morning of January 18, 2016.
Here is a video of the Second Great Miles Davis Quintet of Miles (tp) Wayne Shorter (ts) Harbie Hancock (p) Ron Carter (b) and Tony Williams (d) playing "Agitation" in Stockholm in 1963. Tony Williams was 18 years old.
