Draft:Harold Ivory Williams

• Comment: restored via VTRS request Nthep (talk) 22:11, 9 December 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: `seems notable DGG ( talk ) 20:39, 25 April 2021 (UTC)

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Not to be confused with Ivory Williams.

For other people named Harold Williams, see Harold Williams (disambiguation).

Harold Ivory Williams, Jr.
Background information
Birth name	Harold Ivory Williams, Jr.
Born	August 25, 1949
Origin	Baltimore, Maryland, US
Died	June 9, 2010
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion, funk, soul, electronic, gospel classical
Occupation	Musician
Instrument(s)	Piano, keyboards
Years active	1960s–2010

Harold Ivory Williams, Jr. (August 25, 1949 – June 9, 2010) was an American gospel music and jazz keyboardist most known for working with Miles Davis, Michal Urbaniak, MFSB, and the Rev. James Cleveland.

Biography

Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He was named after his father, Harold Ivory Williams, who was the senior prelate and one of the Patriarchs of the Mount Calvary Churches Of America and International. He had one sister, Rev. Hope Mason, who created Gospel Aerobics,and was the stepson to gospel singer Shirley Caesar-Williams, god-son to Mahalia Jackson and his grandmother, Rev Ethel Williams (the first ordained African-American woman in Baltimore, MD), who worked as an assistant to Marcus Garvey during the historic movement. Williams started playing piano at the age of three, becoming an accomplished and sought-after pianist.

Equally proficient in jazz, gospel, and classical music, Williams, a former student of the Peabody Institute, played an active role in the development of the jazz-fusion era, introducing elements of Gospel and classical music to the mix as evidence on the Big Fun Miles Davis album. He was one of the first to fuse gospel music with jazz in the church arena.

Williams appeared as a solo artist at Carnegie Hall and performed with Miles Davis, James Cleveland, George Duke, MFSB "Cowboys to Girls", "Me and Mrs. Jones" and other Gamble and Huff greatest hits, Albertina Walker, David Liebman, John Lee and Jerry Brown, Michal Urbaniak, Urszula Dudziak, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, and others at a young age. He founded a group with several prominent jazz musicians including jazz bassist Tony Bunn. The group, known as Dialect, recorded a demo session for Kenny Gamble’s Philadelphia International Records and was to become the label’s answer to the booming market in jazz/fusion music in the late 1970s. Gamble decided to use the band to back another of his artists, vocalist Jean Carne while grooming Dialect to spin-off on its own. On the verge of international success, Williams was forced to stop due to a debilitating illness. He continued to play in the church until his death in 2010.

Gallery

• 
  Harold Ivory Williams
• 1970s fusion era
  1970s fusion era

Select discography

As sideman

• Miles Davis - Miles Davis: The Columbia Years 1955-1985, Columbia - synthesizer on "Thinkin' One Thing And Doin' Another"
• Miles Davis - On the Corner (1972), Columbia - keyboards
• MFSB - MFSB (1973), CBS/Sony
• Miles Davis - Big Fun (1974), Columbia - piano on "Ife"
• Urszula Dudziak - Urszula (1976), Arista
• Miles Davis/Bill Laswell - Panthalassa: The Music of Miles Davis 1969-1974 (1998)
• Miles Davis - The Complete On the Corner Sessions (2007), Columbia
• Dave Liebman - Light'n Up, Please! (Horizon, 1976)
• Michal Urbaniak - Body English 1977, Fusion Legends, UBX
• Miles Ahead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack starring Don Cheadle, Legacy / Columbia (88985306672)

Publication date 2016

References

• [1]
• [2]
• [3]

,[[Miles Ahead: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Miles Davis; Don Cheadle; Don Cheadle & Ewan McGregor; Don Cheadle & Phil Schaap; Robert Glasper; Taylor Eigisti Legacy / Columbia (88985306672)

Publication date 2016]]

Category:2010 deaths Category:American jazz pianists Category:American male pianists Category:Jazz fusion pianists Category:American organists Category:American keyboardists Category:1949 births Category:Musicians from Baltimore Category:20th-century American pianists Category:Jazz musicians from Maryland