The Jazz Organ Scene

USA

Jessica Williams Jessica (* 1948) started playing the piano at age four, began music lessons with a private teacher at five, and at age seven was enrolled into the Peabody Preparatory. She studied classical music and ear training with Richard Aitken and George Bellows at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. At age twelve she was listening to Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, and Charles Mingus. She knew she was destined to become a jazz pianist.   Jessica began performing jazz in her teens, playing with Richie Cole, Buck Hill, and Mickey Fields. In a rare radio interview with Marian McPartland on NPR's Piano Jazz, she states that her main influences were not pianists, but horn players, most notably Miles Davis and John Coltrane.   In June 1976, Jessica began performing regularly with the "Philly Joe" Jones band in New Jersey, and with Lex Humphries in Philadelphia and New York City, before moving to the West Coast in October 1976.   In 1977, Jessica moved to San Francisco, where she played in various house bands at the Keystone Korner. She played in the bands of Eddie Harris, Tony Williams, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, and Charlie Haden, eventually leading her own jazz trio, and recording prolifically for the next several decades.   In 1997, Jessica established her own record label, Red and Blue Recordings. She also started her publishing company, JJW Music/ASCAP.   Jessica appeared at the 2004 and 2006 "Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festivals" at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.. She also appeared in festivals and venues worldwide, including The Purcell Room in London, The Bern Jazz Festival, The Monterey Jazz Festival, The New Morning in Paris, Spivey Hall in Georgia, and hundreds of other venues. She was a guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and Marian McPartland's acclaimed Piano Jazz Show on NPR, as well as being interviewed by the BBC in Brecon, Wales.   In 2012, Jessica had a spinal fusion with internal instrumentation at Swedish Hospital's Neurosurgery Unit in Seattle, WA, and subsequently lost her ability to perform.   from Wkipedia

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