Faculty Directory

Research Interests

Composition, Critical Improvisation Studies

Biography, Education and Training

Short Biography
 James Gordon Williams is a dynamic composer, pianist, and cultural theorist. He has worked with artists Crystal Z. Campbell, Maria Gaspar, Fred Moten, Cauleen Smith, Suné Woods. He has performed with pianist/composer Anthony Davis, bassist Mark Dresser, Joseph Jarman, Gregory Porter,  George E. Lewis, Mark Dresser, Greg Osby, Charenée Wade as well as other musical luminaries. He held the piano chair for several years in the late Charli Persips’ Supersound band. He has performed at Birdland, the former Lenox Lounge, Knitting Factory, Symphony Space, Village Vanguard, and music festivals around the world in France, Italy, Malta, He has been commissioned by Syracuse Stage to write music for playwright Kyle Bass’s salt/city/blues. He is the author of Crossing Bar Lines: The Politics and Practices of Black Musical Space (2021) published by University Press of Mississippi. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Ethnomusicology Review, Jazz & Culture, Jazz Research Journal, Journal of African American Studies, Liquid Blackness, and Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture. 

Selected Publications

Publications

Books

Crossing Bar Lines: The Politics and Practices of Black Musical Space. University Press of Mississippi (2021)

Journal Articles

Williams, James Gordon. “Black Birdanity.” Jazz and Culture, Vol. 4, No. 2, (2021); 85–104

Williams, James Gordon. “Randy Weston’s Pan African Politics of Music Education.” Jazz and Culture, Vol. 4, No. 1, (2021): 33-67

Williams, James Gordon. "Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Critique of the Danziger Bridge Shootings." Jazz Research Journal, Volume 13, Numbers 1-2, (2019): 70-92

Williams, James Gordon. "Black Muse 4 U: Liminality, Self-Determination, and Racial Uplift in the Music of Prince." Journal of African American Studies 21, no. 3 (2017): 296-319

Williams, James Gordon. "Crossing Cinematic and Sonic Bar Lines: T-Pain's 'Can't Believe It'." Ethnomusicology Review 19, (2014)

Williams, James Gordon. “Improvising on Feedback Piano: Aesthetic Discourses Behind Technology and Sound” in Rethinking Improvisation: Artistic Explorations & Conceptual Writing, edited by Henrik A. Frisk & Stefan Östersjö, 169-177. Lund University, Sweden, (2013)

Williams, James Gordon. “African American Influences on American Music” in Music in American Life: An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture, edited by Jacqueline Edmondson, 17-23, Greenwood Press, (2013).

Selected Presentations

Public Lectures and Presentations

2024 Ethnomusicology Beyond the Human Symposium, Panelist, invited by Juliana Graper, Indiana University, April 26-27, 2024.

Force of Things: In Conversation with artist Maria Gaspar and Live Performance by James Gordon Williams, invited by artist Maria Gaspar, Something Beautiful: Reframing La Colección Exhibition, Museo del Barrio, June 21, 2023

Afrofuturism: Centering the African-Diasporic Imagination, Milestones of Black Speculative Thought, Invited by Nicole M. Mitchell, Université Paris 8, February 9, 2023

Hit2Hit: Battle of Celebrated Rwandan Music Producers Trackslayer and Dr. Nganji, a Documentary Screening and Discussion, Invited by Victoria Netanus Grubbs, Black Studies Collaboratory, UC Berkeley, February 22, 2023, 1:30-2:30 pm (via Zoom)

“Mubuntusic,” International colloquium: Afrofuturism: Centering the African-Diasporic Imagination, University of Paris 8, France, February 8-10, 2023.

“Randy Weston’s Pan African Politics of Musical Education,” Society for American Music conference, Tacoma Washington, March 17-21, 2021.

“Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s Critique of the Danziger Bridge Shootings” presented at the International Society for Improvised Music (ISIM) Augsburg University, Minneapolis, MN, May 16, 2019. 

“Breathing as Improvisational Strategy and Social Commentary in Experimental Music” presented at Humanities Center Faculty Fellows Dinner Presentations at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, February 1, 2018.

“Black Muse 4 U: Liminality, Self-Determination and Racial Uplift in the Music of Prince” presented at the Purple Reign: An Interdisciplinary Conference on the Life and Legacy of Prince at the University of Salford, Manchester, England, May 26, 2017.

 “Crossing Bar Lines: Improvising the Subject Through Unconventional Musical Practices” presented at Breathturns: Improvisation and Freedom Conference at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, June 26, 2016.

 “Strange Fruitvale: Improvised Music as Protest Against Police Brutality” presented at Black Arts Initiative Conference at Northwestern University in Chicago, IL, June 4-6, 2015.

 “Sun Ra’s Epistemologies,” at Guelph Jazz Colloquium at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. September 3-5, 2014.

“Crossing the Bar Lines: Locating 20th and 21st Strategies of Musical Equipoise and Resistance” presented at African American Music in World Culture: Art as Refuge and Strength in the Struggle for Freedom at Boston University, Boston MA, March 22, 2014.

 “My Name Is Oscar: Improvisation and Social Death” presented at Yale University in New Haven, CT. April 2013.

“Improvising On Feedback Piano” presented at Yale Bouchet Conference on Diversity in Graduate Education at Yale University in New Haven, CT, April 2012.

“Improvising On Feedback Piano: Aesthetic Discourses Behind Technology and Sound” presented at the Rethinking Improvisation Conference in Malmö, Sweden, November 29, 2011).

“T-Pain Effect: The Politics of Representation in Autotune” presented at the Pop Conference in Seattle, WA, April 17, 2010.

“T-Pain Effect: The Politics of Representation in Autotune” presented at the Guelph Jazz Colloquium in Ontario, Canada. September 8-10, 2010.

“Critiquing the Stereotype of Wes Montgomery as a Natural Musician” presented at the Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA, May 11, 2010.

Selected Exhibitions

Multidisciplinary Artistic Practice as Research  

Model Citizen, Here I Stand. Multidisciplinary Performance Exhibition with Crystal Z. Campbell Living Arts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 7th, 2018-January 18th, 2019

You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. UCLA Hammer Museum, 2018

You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. Light Work, 2018

Outlaw Culture Music. Syracuse University Community Folk Art Center, 2015

Solo Piano Improvisation for World Premiere of Cauleen Smith’s Crow Requiem. Everson Museum, 2015

Selected Recordings

Recordings

Unrepeatable Life, 2005

Selected Performances

Artistic Research, Performances and Installations

"The Worldmaking Aura of Sonic Blackness" Collaborative Performance with Moor Mother and James Gordon Williams, Music Center UC Santa Cruz, March 6, 2024

The Healing. Solo Piano Concert. Music Center, UC Santa Cruz, November 1, 2023

Compositions. Collaboration with Maria Gaspar. Improvisation on Sculptures from Cook County Jail, Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, October 7th, 2023

Terri Lyne Carrington’s Presents Music for Abolition. Keyboard Improvisation on Nicholas Payton’s composition “Freedom Is No Fear,” Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, June 8, 2023 (Other artists in the program included Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Camila Cortina Bello, Morgan Guerin, Nicole Mitchell, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Matthew Stevens and Carl “Kokayi” Walker)

Falling to Rise Again, Solo Piano Performance, April in Santa Cruz Festival of New Music, San Francisco, CA, the Lab, April 30, 2023

Model Citizen, Here I Stand. Multidisciplinary Performance Exhibition with Crystal Z. Campbell Living Arts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 7th, 2018-January 18th, 2019

You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. UCLA Hammer Museum, August 23, 2018

Piano performance in Studio Venezia by French Artist Xavier Veilhan who presented his work at the 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, French Pavilion, 2017

You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. Light Work, September 13, 2017

Outlaw Culture Music. Syracuse University, Community Folk Art Center, November 19, 2015

Solo piano improvisation for world premiere of Cauleen Smith’s Crow Requiem & Speculations: Science Fiction, Chronopolitics, & Social Change. Everson Museum, April 7, 2015

Solo Feedback Piano Performance, Malmö Conservatory of Music, Sweden, 2011

Solo Feedback Piano Performance, UC San Diego Conrad Prebys Music Center, 

2011

Gregory Porter, Idyllwild Jazz Festival, 2010

Exceptional Musicians-Essential Music 10th Anniversary, Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA, 2010 

Anthony Davis and James Gordon Williams in a Duo Piano recital, Mandeville Recital Hall, UC San Diego, 

2008

Charli Persip Trio, The Jazz Museum of Harlem, 2008

Masterclass & Concerto, Sull, Improvvisazione Jazz, PN Bar & Café, in Pordenone, Italy, September 18, 2008 

Solo piano concert, The Istituto di Musica Della Pedemontana, Aviano, Italy, 2008

James Gordon Williams and Mark Dresser Duo, La Jolla Library, 2008

Intrinsic Evolution (2008) with Charli Persip, 2007 

Charli Persip Quintet, Jazz Mobile, 2007

James Gordon Williams Quartet, Lenox Lounge, 

James Gordon Williams Quartet, The Stone, 2007

James Gordon Williams, John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, New York City, 2006

Charli Persip Trio, Smoke Jazz Club,2006

James Gordon Williams Quartet, Smalls Jazz Club, 2006

Miles Griffith Quartet, Jazz Standard, 2006

Charli Persip Supersound, Minton's Playhouse, 2006 

Charli Persip Supersound, Birdland Jazz Club, 2005 

Greg Osby 5, Village Vanguard, 2005

Greg Osby 5, Green Mill Jazz Club, Chicago, 2005

2005

James Gordon Williams Trio, Knitting Factory, New York City, 2005

Joseph Jarman Ensemble, Vision Festival, New York City, 2005

2005

Charli Persip Supersound Band, New Jersey Jazz Festival, 2005

Greg Osby 5, Atina Jazz Festival, Italy, 2005

Greg Osby 5, Jazz à La Seyne, France, 2005

Greg Osby 5, Langnau Nights, Switzerland, 2005 

Greg Osby 5, Malta Jazz Festival, 2004

Charli Persip Supersound Band, Ellington Jazz Festival, 2004

James Gordon Williams Trio, Celebration of Tom Otterness, Symphony Space, 2003

Unrepeatable Life, JGWMUSIC Records, 2003

Joseph Jarman Ensemble, "Dignified Dissonances In The History of Dirt!," Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Community Church of New York, 2003

James Gordon Williams Duo, Birdland Jazz Club, 1997 - 1998