David "Happy" Williams


David "Happy" Williams, is a US-based Trinidadian jazz double-bassist, who was a long-time member of Cedar Walton's group. Williams has also worked with many other notable musicians, including Woody Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson, Stan Getz, Kenny Barron, Duke Jordan, Monty Alexander, Frank Morgan, Hank Jones, Charles McPherson, Larry Willis, George Cables, Abdullah Ibrahim, David "Fathead" Newman, Sonny Fortune, John Hicks, Louis Hayes, Jackie McLean, Clifford Jordan, Abbey Lincoln, Ernestine Anderson, and Kathleen Battle.

Background and career

David Larry Williams was born in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad. His father, John "Buddy" Williams, was a bass player and one of Trinidad's best-known bandleaders of the 1940s and 1950s. David started playing music at the age of five, initially on piano, then violin and steelpan. He attended Tranquillity Boys School, Port of Spain, and at the age of 12 began playing bass in earnest. As a teenager, he played pan in the Invaders steelband. When his sister went to London on scholarship to study piano, David joined her there in 1962, studying bass for a year at the London College of Music. He recalls, "I started getting offers and gigs, I was working in nightclubs, you know, wherever I could play, pubs, it didn't matter, and I had this desire, this thing to just get out there and play."
Williams went to New York City in 1969 on what was intended to be a two-week visit but decided to stay on when he was offered work after sitting in on a gig with Beaver Harris featuring Grachan Moncur in place of Jimmy Garrison. Following leads from Ron Carter, Williams began working with Gap and Chuck Mangione, and then went to Washington, DC, where he became Roberta Flack's bass player for two years, also working with Donny Hathaway during that time.
Williams' first album as a leader, Soul is Free, was released in 1979; one of the compositions from it, "Out of the Sheets, Into the Streets", was used in the 1983 Eddie Murphy film Trading Places.
In 1982 Williams became a member of the Cedar Walton Trio alongside Billy Higgins, on the death of Sam Jones, for whom he had occasionally subbed. They became, in the words of Jazz Journal: "One of the most regarded trios in contemporary acoustic Jazz".
In more recent years, Williams has also written and recorded music inspired by Trinidadian steelpan and calypso, notably the "pan jazz" album Reid, Wright and be Happy, alongside Ron Reid and Orville Wright.

Discography

As leader

  • Soul is Free
  • Up Front
  • Duo with Cedar Walton
  • Rhythm of the Street
  • Ping Pong Obsession
  • The Prize
  • The Spirit
  • Reid, Wright and Be Happy
  • The Message
  • Move Your Furniture
  • The Licentious Hour
  • ''Feel the Passion''

    As sideman

With Herb Alpert and Hugh Masekela
  • Main Event Live
With Kenny Barron
  • Peruvian Blue
  • Invitation
  • Quickstep
With David Benoit
  • Heavier Than Yesterday
With The Blackbyrds
  • The Blackbyrds
With George Cables
  • Old Wine New Bottles
  • Wonderful L. A.
With Michael Carvin
  • Revelation
  • Each One Teach One
With Cyrus Chestnut
  • A Million Colors in Your Mind
With Freddy Cole
  • Love Makes the Changes
With Charles Davis
  • Ingia!
With Roberta Flack
With Sonny Fortune
  • Monk's Mood
With Steve Grossman
With Slide Hampton
  • Roots
With Louis Hayes
  • Breath of Life
With David Hazeltine
  • Modern Standards
With Billy Higgins
  • Billy Higgins Quintet
With Terumasa Hino
  • Blue Smiles
With Freddie Hubbard
  • Bolivia
With Abdullah Ibrahim
  • Water From an Ancient Well
  • Mindif
With Jermaine Jackson
With Elvin Jones
  • The Main Force
  • New Agenda
With Sam Jones
  • Cello Again
With Clifford Jordan
  • Down Through the Years
With Duke Jordan
With Joyce
  • Language and Love
With David Lasley
  • Missin' Twenty Grand
With Liberace
With Warne Marsh
  • Back Home
With Jackie McLean
  • Nature Boy
With Charles McPherson
  • But Beautiful
With James Moody, Clark Terry and Elvin Jones
  • Summit Meeting
With Frank Morgan
  • A Lovesome Thing
With David "Fathead" Newman
With One for All
  • Killer Joe
With Art Pepper
  • The Trip
  • Art Pepper with Duke Jordan in Copenhagen 1981 with Duke Jordan
  • Roadgame
  • Art Lives
  • APQ
  • Arthur's Blues
  • Unreleased Art, Vol. 1:The Complete Abashiri Concert - November 22, 1981
  • Final Art: Art Pepper Last Concert 1982
With Dave Pike
  • Pike's Groove with Cedar Walton
With Ernest Ranglin
  • Memories of Barber Mack
With Vanessa Rubin
  • Girl Talk
With Janis Siegel
With the Voices of East Harlem
With Cedar Walton
  • The Maestro
  • Eastern Rebellion 4
  • Cedar's Blues
  • The Trio 1
  • The Trio 2
  • The Trio 3
  • Cedar Walton
  • Bluesville Time
  • As Long as There's Music
  • Mosaic as Eastern Rebellion
  • Simple Pleasure as Eastern Rebellion
  • You're My Everything
  • Art Blakey Legacy
  • Live at the Village Vanguard - as Eastern Rebellion
  • Never Let Me Go
  • Manhattan Afternoon
  • Sweet Basil Trio
  • Iron Clad
  • The Promise Land
  • Midnight Waltz
  • One Flight Down
  • The Bouncer
With Larry Willis
  • How Do You Keep the Music Playing?
  • ''A Tribute to Someone''