Jessica Williams

Some Ballads, Some Blues

Jazz Focus JFCD 038

Jessica Williams, piano; Dave Captein, bass; Mel Brown, drums

This is easy. Jessica Williams doesn't make bad records. She can incorporate a multitude of styles in one number. She can swing like John Henry wielding his hammer, do Monk and Bill Evans, build tension and release, get ecstatic and rapturous, rhapsodic, yet. Basically, though...you are sitting on your porch and worrying about how to save the world and from the house comes this delicate sound of soothing music from the slender fingers of a sensitive-looking blonde lady, and you stop worrying about the world. Jessica's playing will dwindle to a stop, she will come to you on the porch and caress your furrowed brow. Sigh! Silence! Emptiness! Silence, for we worldly worriers, is demonstrable only by its absence. Try describing emptiness, you will agree that there are no metaphors available. But it can be demonstrated. So, before yours truly starts riffing beyond all reason, I would "strongly suggest you buy this record (then go looking for all of her other ones). You won,t regret it. This is great

by Lawrence Brazier

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