David "Chet" Williamson Sneade

Williamson’s 40-plus-year career as a harmonica player has taken him from the streets of the Great Brook Valley Housing Projects of Worcester, MA to memorable performances around the world.

Reflecting his ability to play a wide variety of musical styles, Williamson has shared stages with many of the world’s most popular and finest musicians, including Sleepy LaBeef, Joan Osborne and Duke Levine.

As a teen, Williamson played blues after hearing Paul Butterfield’s first album. He also had the good fortune to sit right next to Babe Pino — a local phenom – all through junior and senior high school. At 15, Williamson took part in regular weekly jam sessions at the Lincoln Neighborhood Center and hooked Pino up with a gig at Poli’s, which later became the Ale ‘n Bun. There Pino led a band that featured pianist David Maxwell and guitarist Bob Margolin. Williamson counts his experience sitting in with saxophonist Howie Jefferson, drummer Reggie Walley and organist Al Arsenault at the Kitty Kat as a highlight of his early development.

Williamson would also begin his professional career at the “Bun” (Failin’ Fun) performing with a teenage blues band called Tacoma Street. In the 1970s, Williamson took up the double bass and began classical study with Frank Gallagher of the Boston Pops and jazz work with Joe Holovnia and pianist Alan Mueller.

It was singer-songwriter Dennis Brennan that got Williamson back into playing the harmonica. At a party one night, Brennan handed Williamson an old chromatic and said, “You should be playing this,” which he has been doing ever since.

A lifelong fan of Stevie Wonder, Williamson began diving into the mix of the great chromatic solos by the Motown Master. And through his jazz listening, he started hearing the effortless mastery of Toot Thielemans.

In the early ‘80s, Williamson started doing radio at WCUW 91.3 FM, a community broadcast station with a national reputation for excellence. There he shared the blues chair with Joanna Connor, Steve Ramsay, and Red Abare. The jazz programmers included Alan West, Tom Reney and Jane Miller, among others. One of his many highlights was interviewing Lazy Lester with Abare. He was also responsible for introducing music to Gilrein’s, the Home of the Blues (for Central New England) in 1983.

Throughout the decade Williamson led bands that played around the city and region. In groups such as Big Town Blues, the Harmonics and Rhythm Oil, his bands opened for such blues and R&B greats as Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, Luther “Guitar Jr.,” Johnson, the Drifters, and the Platters.

In the late ‘80s, Williamson began freelance music writing for local outlets, the Worcester Telegram and Worcester Magazine. Some of his favorite interviews of that period include those with Waylon Jennings, Laura Nyro, John Hiatt, Dave Sanborn, and Mose Allison.

In the early 1990s, Williamson became talent buyer for the Plantation Club, where he booked such acts as Dan Hicks, the Persuasions and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. Harmonica players booked at the club included Kim Wilson, Rick Estrin, William Clarke, Jerry Portnoy, and Mark Hummel.

Willamson’s harmonica styling can be heard on She’s Busy’s Strange Bedfellows, Michael Barrett’s Steel Town Blues, Valerie and Walter Crockett's Moonbone and Emily’s Angel, Mike Duffy's Destined to be a Rumor, the Movie Channel's station ID, "Try a Little TMC," and Chuck and Mud’s 25th Anniversary DVD.

The first release under his own name, Chromatic Swing, features jump blues and standards from the swing era. In his review of the album, music writer, Scott McLennan from the Worcester Telegram, said, “Chromatic Swing is Williamson’s voice coming through loud and clear. The disc is a cooking session of swing era gems associated with the likes of Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Harry “Sweets” Edison. It’s a likable fusion of jazz and blues traditions made possible by a cast of strong and colorful players.” They include pianist Matt McCabe, bassist Thomson Kneeland, and drummer Steve Ramsay. One of the tunes can be heard in the film, A Wormtown Gimmick.

In 1998, Williamson was hired as the A&E Editor at Worcester Magazine, where for the next 10 years he was afforded the opportunity to interview many of his favorite musicians, artists, and writers. A partial list include, Linda Ronstadt, Sonny Rollins, Milt Jackson, Sam Lay, Ruth Brown, B.B. King, Levon Helm, Jaki Byard, Howard Armstrong, Jackie McLean, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Candy Kane, E.L. Doctrow, Tommy Makem, Jerry Bergonzi, Dave McKenna, Phillip Walker, Roy Rogers, Joe Lovano and Monty Alexander, Katarina Witt and Darrell Hammond, among hundreds more.

Willamson is also the author of The Jazz Worcester Real Book, bios and profiles of Worcester jazz musicians including Frank Capp, Barbara Carroll, Jaki Byard, Steve Davis, Don Fagerquist, Boots Mussulli, Rick Stepton, Gary Valente and Tony Zano, among others. As a freelance writer, his work can be read in Boston Magazine, Blues Wire, The WPI Journal, Blues Audience, Artscope, JazzEd and North Shore Living.

Articles on harmonica players include profiles of Toots Thielemans, Charlie Musselwhite, Rod Piazza, Paul Delay, Carey Bell, James Cotton, Hendrik Meurkens and John Mayall.

The city of Worcester has been a magnet for harmonica players. At one time or other such players as Magic Dave Therault, Kim Field, Rupert Oysler and Billy Blue lived in town and Williamson befriended all of them. Magic Dick, of course, went to WPI and in addition to Williamson and Pino, harmonica players Ron Sloan, Shaky Steve Prunier and Revin’ Kevin Keith grew up here.

While writing full-time, Williamson continued performing. He studied briefly with Mike Turk, Pierre Beauregard and Peter “Madcat” Ruth and gigged with a variety of players throughout New England including such blues acts as the Cambridge Harmonica Orchestra, Ken Pino, Shirley Lewis, Nat Simpkins, Troy Gonyea, Ric Maure, Tomo Fujita, Ken Clark, George McCann, Mike Williams, Pete Henderson, Reggie Walley’s Bluescians with Bunny Price and Lou Terricciano. His jazz credits include dates with Alan Dawson, Rich Greenblatt, Jay Messer, Amanda Carr, Mitch Seidman, Tom McClung, Pamela Hines, Jack Pezanelli, Rich Falco, John Wilkins, Jane Miller, Linda Dagnello, Bill Fanning, Jerry Sabatini, John Harrison, Dick Odgren and Emil Haddad.

Touring and other highlights: In addition to traveling extensively stateside, including a gospel music caravan of Florida with Brother Earl Waithe, Williamson has performed in France, Belgium and Luxembourg. He cites performances at Jazz at Sunset, Mechanics Hall and at the Hanover Theater among his favorite shows; sessions in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn with Rick Estrin as the most instructive; and a benefit for the homeless in Paris as the most rewarding.

In 2008, Williamson recorded a duo album with guitarist Steve Cancelli. Called Two for the Road, it features jazz standards, harmonica favorites, blues, ballads, and bossa novas. Cancelli is a player of impeccable sound and taste. Hear more of him on singer Monica Hatch's album, If You Never Come to Me. The disc has received international critical acclaim – even making a front-page review in a Swedish newspaper.

Williamson’s 2009 recording is Chromology: Compositions for the Chromatic Harmonica, with pianist Dick Odgren. The pieces feature musical portraits and tributes of many of the musicians that keep inspiring and recharging Williamson musical battery. No stranger to the national jazz scene, Odgren has recorded with Pat and Mike Metheny, Bill Frisell and Rufus Reed, among others. This CD is the debut release for Altimeter Records.

His 2010 release is called Chromatic Noir, original music inspired by the film genre with pianist Joe Mazzarella and guitarist Jimmy Morrell. The following year, Williamson produced a long time coming project called The Resurrection of Little David’s Harp. See chromaticnoir.bandcamp.com

In addition to his duo with Cancelli, Williamson also performs with A Herd of Cats, a quartet that mix bluegrass with the sounds of Django Reinhardt. Lastly, Williamson leads his own quartet, the Midnight Creeps, a modern blues band that looks way back to come way forward.

Beginning in December of 2012, Williamson became the host of “The Jazz Matinee” heard Monday through Thursday from 4-6 p.m. at WICN 90.5 FM. See: www.wicn.org

For more than 10 years, he was featured with guitarist Steve Cancelli and later Rich Falco every Friday night at Val's Restaurant in Holden, MA.

These days, he now resides in Holliston, MA where continues to write features and compose music. You can find his work at www.jazzriffing.blogspot.com .

His latest book is Falling Rains of Life; The Jaki Byard Story. It is available now as a digital download only. Send all inquiries to [email protected]

Awards

First Place A&E writing from New England Press Association.