Jazz Articles about Tony Williams

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Tony Williams: Mosaic Select 24

by John Kelman
December 11, 2006

Tony WilliamsMosaic Select 24Mosaic Records2006When Tony Williams passed away unexpectedly in 1997, at the age of 51, it was the end to a career that had done much to redefine the drummer's role in jazz. From his earliest days--first with saxophonist Jackie McLean, and shortly afterwards, while still in his teens, as a member of trumpet icon Miles Davis' second great quintet--Williams lifted the kit out of its conventional position as an ...

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The Tony Williams Lifetime: Emergency!

by Trevor MacLaren
November 16, 2005

The Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! Polydor 1969

A few months back I came across a great book written on the last forty years of jazz, Howard Mandel's Future Jazz. The book covered a lot of stylistic ground, including avant-garde, fusion, and free. It basically touched on jazz that Ken Burns never deemed a necessary part of jazz history. In a chapter on guitarist John McLaughlin, Mandel mentioned a band that ...

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McCoy Tyner: Counterpoints

by AAJ Staff
December 7, 2004

McCoy Tyner has basically been making the same insanely luscious and gorgeously dense modal music for nearly 40 years now. Which means that Counterpoints , which consists of five unreleased live tracks from a 1978 Tokyo concert (others were issued in 1979 on the currently unavailable Passion Dance ), is unlikely to offer anything new to anybody who's got more than a passing familiarity with the legendary pianist's work. That said, the sound is clear, Tyner is in ...

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Miles Davis - Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1963-1964

by Colin Fleming
September 22, 2004

Seven Steps : Review #1 | Review #2 | Review #3 | Discuss | Poll

Miles Davis Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Miles Davis, 1963-1964 Columbia Legacy 2004

One of the more undervalued phases in Miles Davis' career, the years 1963-64 are typically deemed a fallow period, marked by a few mildly inventive studio creations and scattershot radio broadcasts. Davis' transformations were often stylistic, but this collection puts the bulk ...

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Miles Davis - Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1963-1964

by Jim Santella
September 22, 2004

Seven Steps : Review #1 | Review #2 | Review #3 | Discuss | Poll

Miles Davis Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings Of Miles Davis, 1963-1964 Columbia Legacy 2004

Seven discs paint a pretty good picture of the sound that Miles Davis gave us back then.

Some of the master's mid-'60s material has not been previously issued. As had been the case time and again, the Miles ...

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Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings, 1963-1964

by John Kelman
September 22, 2004

Eagerly anticipated, Seven Steps: The Complete Columbia Recordings of Miles Davis 1963-1964 documents the emergence of Miles' second great quintet, featuring saxophonist Wayne Shorter, pianist Herbie Hancock, bassist Ron Carter and drummer Tony Williams. It demonstrates, over the course of seven discs and seven hours, how critical each member of that quintet was. As the group coalesces over a period of two years it's tangible how everything falls into place, like a set of tumblers on a complicated lock.

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The New Tony Williams Lifetime: Believe It

by John Kelman
June 1, 2004

By the time drummer Tony Williams left Miles Davis in '69, he had moved even farther away from the acoustic tradition than his former employer. His first recordings with his new band, Lifetime, were characterized by the sleeve instructions: “Play it Loud!" While the energy level was high and the music was infused with a rock and roll philosophy, it was nevertheless uncompromising and continued to push the boundaries; intense, daring and sometimes a little terrifying, the early incarnation of ...