Harold Ivory Williams, Junior. was an American jazz keyboardist most known for working with Miles Davis, Michal Urbaniak, MFSB, and the Review James Cleveland.
Background
Williams was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and was named after his father, Harold Ivory Williams (bishop), Doctor of Divinity, who was the Senior prelate and one of the Patriarchs of the Mount Calvary Churches Of America and International Incorporated.
Career
He was often in demand all over the city, as well as up and down the East Coast. Williams appeared on the album The Best Of James Cleveland and the Gospel Music Workshop of America. He was heralded by many in the late 1960s to 1980s as a musical genius and electronic wizard (long before technology became the norm), and was consequently revered as being ahead of his time.
He played a very active role in the development of the jazz fusion era introducing elements of Gospel and classical music to the mix as evidence on the Big Fun Miles Davis album.
He was one of the first to fuse gospel music with jazz in the church arena. Equally proficient in jazz, gospel, and classical music, Williams was a former student of the Peabody Institute.
He founded a group with several prominent jazz musicians including jazz bassist Tony Bunn. The group, known as Dialect, recorded a demo session for Kenny Gamble’s Philadelphia International Records and was to become the label’s answer to the booming market in jazz/fusion music in the late 1970s.
Gamble decided to use the band to back another of his artists, vocalist Jean Carne, while grooming Dialect to spin off on its own.
On the verge of international success, Williams was forced to stop due to a debilitating illness. He continued to play in church until his death in 2010.