Tony Williams Photo Tribute

[Deafmoon]

24 Years Ago this coming February on the 23rd of the month, one of The World's Finest Musicians, Tony Williams left us. I am giving you all a glimpse of a photo-book I have been putting together from many magazines over the years. I wanted to put Tony's music to it in this almost 2 minute snippet, but I am liking the strings because I only have fond memories of Tony. I have been a fan since 1972. Thank you Nick Colon for turning me onto Tony way back then. I miss Tony greatly.

 

[Treviso1]

Very nice. No one played like Tony. He was truly a gift from the Almighty Himself. I got to meet him and helped set up his yellow Gretsch Drums at a clinic in the mid 90s. His drumming and skills just warming up on a snare drum blew my mind. I honestly have never heard anything like it.

 

[Deafmoon]

Very nice. No one played like Tony. He was truly a gift from the Almighty Himself. I got to meet him and helped set up his yellow Gretsch Drums at a clinic in the mid 90s. His drumming and skills just warming up on a snare drum blew my mind. I honestly have never heard anything like it.

That sounds special. Yeah, I agree. I thought Tony was amazing on snare drum. Wallace Roney (R.I.P.) told me Tony used to run through the rudiments on the snare playing them as seamlessly as possible to create a rolling feeling and in fact, opened many a show doing just that. Tremendous drummer for sure, but what saddens me more than anything is what we lost from him on a songwriting compositional basis. Tony was maturing with his compositions and the Blue Note Records from '83 on, have some great pieces on there. Of course with that band, they made those compositions even more beautiful. Mulgrew and Wallace are both gone now. Sad.

 

[Pedal_Pusher]

I love the string piece you chose. Very classy and appropriate. It has taken me almost a whole life time to know when not to add drums to something. Just like in the Cool Hand Luke movie. Some times nothing is a cool hand...

 

[Cauldronics]

Before I knew about Tony Williams and how significant he is to the world of music and drumming, he was teaching drum lessons here in the bay area. I later learned of his importance and wished I’d known enough to try and become a student. There aren’t many opportunities to learn from a legendary player in a one on one setting.