Andrew Williams is a performing artist, independent producer and recording engineer. As a trombonist, he has over twenty years experience and currently is featured with the Slide Hampton septet (2 trombones, piano, bass, drums, synthesizer and guitar). Slide's latest release, Inclusion, showcases the band in a wonderful light. Serious about classical music at an early age, Andrew performed on principal trombone in the New York State All-State Band, a wonderful grouping of some of the world's future orchestral and wind stars. At the same time (while still in high school), Andrew was principal trombonist in the Rochester Philharmonic Youth Orchestra for two years and completed two tours with them, one in Europe and one in the eastern U.S. At the time, he was studying with such teachers of the "Remington" technique as Robert Kalwas and George Osborn (of the Rochester Philharmonic). Not satisfied with only classical music, Andrew immediately began a study of jazz, rock and latin forms and picked up the bass (electric and acoustic) in order to gain more experience. His first payed jobs were at age 15! Andrew would sometimes have to lug a bass, amplifier, trombone and bag of mutes to a job since many of the groups he played with needed not only a capable bassist but also a trombone soloist. He was serious about formal education, attending the Eastman School during the summer, but much of his jazz learning was done the old-fashioned way, by practicing and playing with older, better musicians. At this time he also began to play with a major latin-salsa band in the Rochester area, the Victor Antonetti Orchestra.
Upon graduation from High School, Andrew recieved several scholarships to major music schools. Settling on the Indiana University because of it's mix of classical and jazz, as well as the professors David Baker and Edwin Anderson, Andrew went there for two crucial years. It was at this time that he began to develop his own directions and chose to move to New York City instead of finishing at I.U. Andrew immediately began to work in New York, playing the sort of jobs that most free-lancers in NYC do, weddings, Latin dances, etc. This was not enough, however, and Andrew began to search for more. After a very short stay at the Manhattan School of Music (at which the first commercial recordings of him were made), he began to learn about audio engineering, electronic music and added the trumpet to his list of instruments. He formed the band "School" with guitarist and friend Jared Barkan which explored the pop/jazz fusion that was then popularized be people like Miles Davis. "School" performed around the NYC area for a while until it was sadly disbanded before they could be signed. Andrew remembers playing the tapes of the band for lots of people who would ask "are you signed yet?"
Almost directly after the disintegration of "School", Andrew opened the Sir Pent Studio for Recording. In the financial district of Manhattan, the small studio became a veritable mecca for jazz artists. At this time he began to collaborate with Andy Farber, who can also be heard on Double 'A' . The studio, which recorded almost exclusively acoustic jazz, was simply known of in the Village Voice as "Best Jazz Studio". Some of the recordings were released, some not, but many of the tapes have now reached underground classic status among Andrew's generation of jazz musicians. The studio's main focus was on old-fashioned style recording and on having a real musician behind the console. This has now become a very desirable trait in new recordings and is why Andrew is now the staff engineer at New Jazz Renaissance Recordings (see jazzworld.com).
Economics forced the studio to close prematurely, and since then, Andrew has concentrated nearly all his efforts on trombone performance in jazz. The list of jazz legends he has performed with is staggering and includes: Slide Hampton, Curtis Fuller, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Frank Wess, Frank Foster, Milt Jackson, Billy Mitchell, Jon Faddis, Ron Carter and many more! Andrew has appeared with the Village Vanguard Band, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Jon Hendricks Explosion, Frank Foster All-Star Band and countless other large ensembles.
Andrew is currently working with three major groups, Double 'A' with Andy Farber, the Slide Hampton Septet, and the New Jazz Composers Octet, but this is not all that he does. The current releases (available on jazzworld.com) on NJR records by Spike Wilner and Dennis Jeter were recorded by him. There are others in the mastering state at the time of this writing. Andrew is also starting his own record label (name tba) which will (hopefully!) feature new jazz and classical recordings on CD as well as all-analog LP records! We know that a lot of you are wishing for just that!
In his (shrinking!) spare time, Andrew enjoys waterskiing (slalom, competitive), ham radio, target shooting and working out.
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