Biography Davey Williams

Davey J. Williams (York, Alabama, 1952 – April 5, 2019) was an American free improvisation and avant-garde music guitarist. In addition to his solo work, he was noted for his membership in Curlew and his collaborations with LaDonna Smith & Davey Williams.

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 appeared live at some 1,500 concerts worldwide.

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

Williams died in April 2019 after struggling with cancer.

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)

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