9th July 2015: Jeff Williams and his UK Quintet is to release ‘Outlier’ in March 2016 plus live performance at CBSO, videos available to view.
We are pleased to bring you news of the release of Jeff Williams’ album ‘Outlier‘ in March of next year featuring: Phil Robson, Josh Arcoleo, Sam Lasserson and Kit Downes.
OUTLIER: Something (or someone) that lies outside the main body or group of which it is a part.
“That’s a rough approximation of the position I’ve always seemed to occupy…”
– Jeff Williams
In a career spanning four decades on the New York jazz scene Jeff Williams’ musical associates have included Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman and Lookout Farm, Joe Lovano, Paul Bley and many more.
Since making a second home in London, following marriage to novelist Lionel Shriver, Jeff Williams has performed in the UK with Kenny Wheeler, Norma Winstone, and has toured with McHenry, Konitz, the Phil Robson/Dave Liebman Quartet, and Martin Speake’s Change of Heart (with Bobo Stenson) while also collaborating with Hans Koller, Mike Gibbs, Nikki Iles and many others.
“Over the last decade that I have been living for much of each year in London I have been fortunate to be able to hand pick some of the city’s finest musicians for my UK-based group. Our performances have been revelatory, if infrequent–a situation I hope to improve upon with the release of our upcoming album ‘Outlier‘.
My first studio recording as a leader on Whirlwind since 2011’s Another Time (with my American quartet), Outlier features both new and never-before-recorded original compositions played magnificently by Josh Arcoleo-tenor saxophone, Phil Robson-guitar, Kit Downes-piano and Sam Lasserson-bass. I am the drummer, of course, but I also manage to sneak in on some other instruments on one selection.
The program is a journey through some of the different aspects of my musical life, going from the title track’s mysterious nature to the Monkishly playful second track, ‘The Interloper’, and on to ”Dream Visitor’, a slice of pre-fusion jazz-rock. Continuing with the balladic ‘Meeting a Stranger’ (first heard on my 90’s release Jazzblues), then a dedication to Hermeto Pascoal, followed by the briskly swinging ‘Oddity’.
I am thrilled to have this recording coming out on Whirlwind next March.”
Jeff has the following upcoming performances with his UK ensembles.
24th Sept: Jeff Williams Quartet w/Phil Robson, Josh Arcoleo, Sam Lasserson, NC Jazz, Northampton, UK. (details)
10th Nov. Jeff Williams Trio w/Josh Arcoleo, Sam Lasserson, Spotted Dog, Birmingham, UK (details)
18th March 2016: Jeff Williams Quartet w/Josh Arcoleo, KIt Downes, Sam Lasserson, Sheffield, UK (website)
