Roy Williams

Williams began his career during the British trad jazz movement of the 1950s. He's not an early jazz specialist, however, but a versatile improviser who can play convincingly in a swing-derived style; his playing bears the influence of both <a href="spotify:artist:3okiREk3dV4F8BmK7cpEJf">Jack Teagarden</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:1QTyeOWOgAXxQQf32kPLAL">Urbie Green</a>. Williams played with trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:6RnXrCaMS2NJGsltkGeMVE">Mike Peters</a> and clarinetist <a href="spotify:artist:50PVLHw1P4AZW9wmKAj68Y">Terry Lightfoot</a> in the early '60s. He joined trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:36UTtLB6qzedeSiUC72nYN">Alex Welsh</a>'s Dixieland outfit in 1965, replacing Roy Crimmins. While with <a href="spotify:artist:36UTtLB6qzedeSiUC72nYN">Welsh</a>, Williams played with such prominent American jazz players as <a href="spotify:artist:2tRiAkVNXGVU9cgTcMtFDx">Wild Bill Davison</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:3x4RlqxSWh3pyAI89UCJcn">Bud Freeman</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:2ZJWBoh0c53yW13f86HNuA">Ruby Braff</a>. Williams left <a href="spotify:artist:36UTtLB6qzedeSiUC72nYN">Welsh</a> in 1978 and joined <a href="spotify:artist:64rUsDFcuATcV1JyYn26mf">Humphrey Lyttlelton</a>'s band. He stayed with <a href="spotify:artist:64rUsDFcuATcV1JyYn26mf">Lyttelton</a> for four years. In the '80s he began working freelance, playing with such musicians as clarinetist <a href="spotify:artist:1IeCG7cPteiGUIgbBZjzsG">Peanuts Hucko</a>, tenor saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:7sBx432MZn1MzHeYHAA5qr">Scott Hamilton</a>, trumpeter <a href="spotify:artist:5FppeyhsfRTmTZPjtCjvOf">Bent Persson</a>, and Williams's former mate in the Alex Welsh Band, clarinetist John Barnes. He also performed with <a href="spotify:artist:3od5Mdj7OgLATvDkDynmHH">The World's Greatest Jazz Band</a>. Among Williams's recordings are Gruesome Twosome (Black Lion, 1980) and Interplay (Sine, 1996), both with Barnes. In 1998 Williams co-led a swing-oriented quintet date with saxophonist <a href="spotify:artist:2WHhW7MZCleKMbOEXHoGTN">Danny Moss</a>; the session produced Steamers! for the Nagel-Heyer label. At this writing Williams remains a popular presence on the British mainstream jazz scene. ~ Chris Kelsey, Rovi