Tony Williams

theduke86 said:
Red Alert is on the Lifetime album "Believe It".
Which, coincidentally, is one of my favorite albums of all time. Can't say the same for Million Dollar Legs.
I was thinking about the song 'Red Mask' on Angel street. I haven't heard it in a long time.

I'm not 100% on if its out of print, though I believe some of his are.
 
I just got his DVD from 1989 from Jazz Legends.com and it is incredible. You want to see someone who basically taught himself how to play and aspired to the level he was at is amazing. The songs are great and his playing is some of the best Jazz drumming I have ever heard.
 
I've just noticed a beautiful moment in the first Tony Williams vid, http://drummerworld.com/Videos/tonywilliams1.html, at 02:11, where Tony starts throwing stuff down and Wayne Shorter reacts instantly to give him the space to be heard; you can see him on the edge of playing a note a number of times but holds himself back. It's a great illustration of why it bothers me when band members don't give each other any room.

Either that or he's belching.
 
Womble said:
I've just noticed a beautiful moment in the first Tony Williams vid, http://drummerworld.com/Videos/tonywilliams1.html, at 02:11, where Tony starts throwing stuff down and Wayne Shorter reacts instantly to give him the space to be heard; you can see him on the edge of playing a note a number of times but holds himself back. It's a great illustration of why it bothers me when band members don't give each other any room.

Either that or he's belching.


Wow, that was really cool. I never really noticed that before. Thank you for pointing that out.
 
check out "agitation" with miles davis,the opening solo...just great! i also love "snake oil" from the new lifetime with allan holdsworth. plays that one heavy with a rock drummers' vibe. that guy was so original so intense,he's probably my favorite drummer still.also the live"a tribute to miles davis is good too.alan dawson certainly helped hone his God given abilities and he was a great drummer in his own right...
 
jamsjr44 said:
I just got his DVD from 1989 from Jazz Legends.com and it is incredible. You want to see someone who basically taught himself how to play and aspired to the level he was at is amazing. The songs are great and his playing is some of the best Jazz drumming I have ever heard.

I though Alan Dawson had a lot to do with his formal musical training?
 
Superlow said:
I though Alan Dawson had a lot to do with his formal musical training?

Yeah my teacher is a BIG fan of Tony and he has just started me doing some exercises from that Alan Dawson book...

I really never payed alot of attention to him but seems like alot of the guys I dig like Greg, Dennis and Steve ALL give Tony mad props...so I decided to start checking him out and he really is incredible....

I've only just begun to discover his talent....
 
LinearDrummer said:
Yeah my teacher is a BIG fan of Tony and he has just started me doing some exercises from that Alan Dawson book...

I really never payed alot of attention to him but seems like alot of the guys I dig like Greg, Dennis and Steve ALL give Tony mad props...so I decided to start checking him out and he really is incredible....

I've only just begun to discover his talent....

Well it's a beautiful thing, the man played with so much power and originality. I love his work with Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. If you can get to the more avantegaurd stuff then you will most likely enjoy his solo work as well.
 
alan dawson's book is great...with 2 cd's of him teaching as recorded by a student(who also plays the examples in the book.) especially the "rudimental ritual" about a 10 minute workout of various rudiments over a samba ostinato.great workout even if you can't play it fast(which alan does,then he demonstrates with BRUSHES!) he also talks a little about tony and how he approaches the drums. he was a truly gifted teacher and drummer.
 
I was lucky enough to see him in clinic just months before he passed away.

He began the clinic with a double-stroke roll that he continued for a good 5 minutes, changing the rate, the dynamics.... then moved onto the rest of the kit piece by piece.. he didn't stop for 45 minutes. He was very arrogant and dodged question about other drummers, proclaiming "I'M TONY WILLIAMS.. they (Chambers, Colaiuta, Simon Phillips, etc) got that stuff from ME". Totally turned off my drum teacher at the time... but I loved it.

The man played with the same confidence he carried in life. Not only did my ears ring for days, due to the sheer power of his playing, but he changed my outlook on music forever.

I seriously cried when I read in Time magazine that he died. I had to get behind my kit and get those emotions out.

The most intelligent drummer... every note being 100% intentional and crisp.

Nobody ever played the drums like that and nobody ever will again.

Period.
 
i love tony's playing,VERY intense and true to himself. the way he used swiss army triplets,polyryhtymic figures,flams...the whole nine yards. certainly an innovator. to those new to drums that want to hear something different and exciting,get ahold of some miles davis' cd's with tony and the tony williams' lifetime and new lifetime cd's. he could also do the rock thing with the best of em'.but there did seem to be a bit of bitterness or insecurity in his attitude,but BR was arrogant like that so maybe that's the price of genius.
 
syoshii said:
Tony's Blue Note albums in the '80s and '90s just like Angel Street and Civilization have been out of print since his tragic death, but now good news! Mosaic Records is going to release 3CD-set of Tony which contains all those studio albums of this period!!

http://www.mosaicrecords.com/prodinfo.asp?number=MS-024
This is great news. This period constituted some of his best work. Foreign Intrigue was a top flight effort that featured some of Wallace Roney and Mulgrew Miller's best playing. Then the quintet with Charnett Moffett probably topped that. Mosaic always puts out monster compilations, and the enclosed booklets are superb.
 
mattsmith said:
This is great news. This period constituted some of his best work. Foreign Intrigue was a top flight effort that featured some of Wallace Roney and Mulgrew Miller's best playing. Then the quintet with Charnett Moffett probably topped that. Mosaic always puts out monster compilations, and the enclosed booklets are superb.

True, that band was just awesome!!
I hope Tony's New York Live video to be reissued too on DVD. That video is a killer!!!
 
Tony Williams...why yes, this guy is my Drumming Instructor's Idol. My Instructor try to play many of his style and my Instructor name is also call - Tony ...kekeke !

Tony Williams is a great drummer
 
The last time I saw Tony live was at a very small club in San Francisco, about he size of a cracker box, well at least it felt that way: I got to sit right in front of his kit, I could actually reach out and touch it , it was that close. Tony was wearing a gold shiny jump suit to match has yellow kit. Muscial drumming at it's best , smooth as silk: I still to this day can hardly
believe that I was able to sit so close to the master of bop, in a classic smoke filled dark jazz club, the kind you see in the movies where the band stand is the floor.
 
thombo,being a tony fan and never getting to see him, i understand he played quite LOUD live is that correct?
 
dawg said:
thombo,being a tony fan and never getting to see him, i understand he played quite LOUD live is that correct?

He blew my hair back a couple of times, just playing a single-stroke roll crescendo.

So yeah... but I would call it POWER, not "loudness".

There is a difference.
 
This months ModernDrummer features part 1 of a series they are doing on Tony. The Style and Analysis portion offers insight into the different aspects of his playing style, and some cool transcribed highlights as well...........
 
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