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Jazz Articles about Nathaniel Williford

About Nathaniel Williford

Album Review

"The jazz bandstand is where true democracy lives," the great saxophonist and composer Jimmy Heath told a young Helen Sung. “Everyone must understand their role and come prepared by doing the hard work of study and practice," he said. “Each person will get to say their piece, but it is in the act of integrating as a band that the musicians ultimately create something bigger, richer, and deeper." Oracles launches into a time and place where divisions are deep and ...

Album Review

Carlos Henriquez: Monk Con Clave

Read "Monk Con Clave" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
June 6, 2026

Carlos Henriquez has long understood that rhythm tells stories long before words arrive. On Monk Con Clave, he takes Thelonious Monk's angular brilliance and brings it back to the streets, dance halls, and other crowded spaces across New York's Afro-Caribbean neighbourhoods. The result is not merely a tribute album but a living dialogue between Monk's genius and Henriquez's Nuyorican identity. Leading his self-named big band, Henriquez has assembled a remarkable multigenerational ensemble featuring musicians from the Jazz at ...

Rising Stars

Introducing Trumpeter Nathaniel Williford

by Sanford Josephson
October 6, 2025

Nathaniel Williford's jazz education began when he entered the sixth grade at Osceola County School for the Arts in Kissimmee, FL. “The magic started happening at our instrument trial day," he recalled, “selecting what we'd play in the band program. The trombone was what stood out to me. I could make some basic sounds on the trombone." Things began to change, however, when he heard Osceola's top high school jazz band play. “I heard the lead trumpet sitting ...