Davey Williams (musician)

Davey Williams (born 1952) is an American free improvisation and avant-garde music guitarist. In addition to his solo work, he has been noted for his membership in Curlew and his collaborations with LaDonna Smith.

Davey Williams

Biography

Williams began on guitar at age 12. He played in rock bands in high school, and studied with blues musician Johnny Shines from the late 1960s until 1971. Early in the 1970s Williams played in the University of Alabama B Jazz Ensemble and the Salt & Pepper Soul Band. He also started working with LaDonna Smith around this time, and founded a musical ensemble/recording project called Transmuseq. He toured the U.S. and Europe in 1978. Early in the 1980s he worked in a blues band called Trains in Trouble, then joined Curlew in 1986, who released several albums on Cuneiform Records through the 1990s.

In the 1980s he also worked with Col. Bruce Hampton and OK, Nurse, and in the early 1990s played in a punk rock band called Fuzzy Sons. Concomitantly with Fuzzy Sons, Williams played in an improvisational three-piece called Say What?, and worked with Jim Staley and Ikue Mori. Williams has appeared live at some 1,500 concerts worldwide.

Williams co-founded The Improviser, a journal of experimental music, in 1981. He has also worked as a music critic for the Birmingham News and published freelance criticism elsewhere.

Discography

• Trans with LaDonna Smith, Theodore Bowen, Timothy Reed, Jim Hearon, 1977
• Lacrosse with [John Zorn], 1977-1978
• Folk Music, LaDonna Smith, Ted Bowen, 1978
• Juwels with Anne LeBaron, LaDonna Smith, 1979
• Velocity with Andrea Centazzo, LaDonna Smith, 1979
• Direct Waves with LaDonna Smith, 1980
• USA Tour with Andrea Centazzo, LaDonna Smith, 1980
• Alchemical Rowdies with LaDonna Smith. Pippin Barnett, Danny Finney, Paul Watson, 1982
• White Earth Streak with LaDonna Smith, Gunter Christmann, Torsten Müller, 1983
• Criminal Pursuits, 1985
• Locales for Ecstasy with LaDonna Smith, Cinnie Cole, 1987
• Dix Improvisations with LaDonna Smith, 1989
• Say What! with Steve Noble, Oren Marshall, 1992
• Transmutating with Steve Noble, Oren Marshall, 1993
• Northern Dancer with Jim Staley, Ikue Mori, 1996
• Charmed, I'm Sure (Ecstatic Peace, 1997)
• Texas Was Delicious (Megalon Records, 2000)
• Humdinger (Atavistic Records, 2001)
• Numb Right (Megalon, 2002)
• Cooking With Dynamite! - Hawk Tubley & The Airtight Chiefs (2011)

References

• Davey Williams at Allmusic