Winner of the 2009 Thelonious Monk Competition on bass and Grammy Award for his work with Pat Metheny’s Unity Band, Williams was voted top overall rising star in Downbeat’s 2015 Critic’s Poll.
He uses wide ranging musical structures, references and instrumentation to great effect: from a heartfelt tribute to Nelson Mandela to a lush string quartet, a spoken word tribute to Lee Morgan to an acoustic bass cover of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit. Williams appeared with Don Cheadle in the upcoming movie, “Miles Ahead.”