Tony Williams In NY

His contribution in the legendary Miles Davis quintet (Davis, Shorter, Hancock, Carter, Williams) was a milestone in the development of the jazz drums. While drummers before played tripling or ternary Tony Williams changed this in a binary way of playing and controlled the rhythmical happenings by speeding up, slowing down or at times abandoning the tempo and hence challenged his accompanists creatively. That opened the reach of play that would have remained closed by sticking to a consistent stare beat. Together with John McLaughlin and the organist Larry Young he found at the beginning of the 1970s the group “Lifetime” that had a signifi cant impact on the connection of jazz with rock elements and therefore was style formative for the development of jazz-rock respectively fusion-jazz. In the 1980s Williams studied additionally composition and performed exclusively with his own bands. In this period arised “Sister Cheryl” too which became for the meantime a standard composition of Tony Williams.

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Recorded December 15, 1989 at Chelsea Television Studio, New York

Tony Williams (drums), Ira Coleman (double bass),
Mulgrew Miller (piano), Bill Pierce (soprano- & tenor saxophone),
Wallace Roney (trumpet)