Bear Williams

Bear Williams is the alter ego of Larry Kimpel who will be a familiar name from his time as bassist/musical director with Maze (featuring Frankie Beverly, George Duke, Steve Perry and countless others.) The name "Bear" arises from his wife’s pet name for him and he decided to use it for this project along with "Williams" being his Mother's Maiden Name. Using a band of experienced LA session players, Bear has created a solid album that mixes soul and Rn’B influences: Ricky Zahariades (Bill Champlin and many others) is on guitar/BV’s, Billy Steinway (Stevie Wonder, Patti Austin) on keyboards and Herman Matthews (Tower Of Power, Kenny Loggins, Teresa James) on drums; Julie Delgado duets on one track and adds B/V’s on others. Bear plays bass, handles lead vocals and wrote all the material apart from one cover, collaborating with Ricky and Billy on some of the songs.

Bear has a strong voice and uses it well on both uptempo material and ballads. The ballads in particular take us into familiar soul arrangements, Bear emoting well on tracks like “I Cry” and the title song which has some beautifully restrained playing from the band with acoustic guitar, shimmering piano and electric guitar as Bear bares his soul about his love for his partner. On “I’m Your Friend” Ricky’s guitar adds a hint of country over mainly acoustic backing. For more info go to www.bearwilliamsmusic.com

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