Jordan Williams wasn’t on entirely new footing when he walked into WRTI’s performance studio this month, for a performance and interview with Nicole Sweeney.
“I remember recording in this room with a bunch of friends of mine: Immanuel Wilkins on saxophone, Michael Burton on trumpet, Nazir Ebo on drums, the late Bruce Ketterer on bass,” Williams recalled. “We were all in high school at the time. There was another interview I did here with the late Harrison Ridley, and Jeff Duperon also had me on the set many years ago. So WRTI has shown me a lot of love growing up.”
Williams, 29, now takes the spotlight as our first Philly Made Featured Artist. If you’ve been listening to our jazz broadcast, there’s a good chance you’ve already heard some music from his recent debut album, Playing By Ear. We’re now happy to share this interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Let's talk about some of your earliest memories of jazz here in Philly.
I started at a very young age. My dad played drums. Actually, the first instrument I ever picked up was the drums when I was very little. I was a toddler playing along to John Coltrane records and Lee Morgan records. And then my dad, very shortly thereafter, got me started with the piano. I had a small Casio electric piano, and started to learn how to read music at around six years old. And my parents enrolled me at the Settlement Music School, where I began my classical training, and the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts around the same time, at seven years old. I would have my classical lessons on Monday nights and jazz lessons on Saturdays, and got involved in the various ensembles that Mr. Lovett Hines was putting together. I met a lot of lifelong friends and made friendships with musicians that were going through the program at the time. We were all coming up together and being groomed by the elders in Philadelphia.
Your new album is Playing by Ear. And I love this comment you made, that playing by ear is not only how you learn to listen to music, but to listen to life. Let's talk about that, especially growing up in Philly. A lot of sounds: trains, buses. I would love to hear how you trained yourself to play by ear and connect that to living in Philly.
Records were always played in my house growing up. But I listened to everything in school; there was a lot of hip hop, obviously, that my friends would listen to. I grew up in church as well, so I was always around the Baptist church tradition. So I try to incorporate the entire culture in my playing and my sound, even if it's just interactions with my family or friends. It's all life. So I try to put life into my music. I try to put my friends into my music. I try to put my family into my music. I just try to put it all into the music: positive moments, negative moments, everything. I try to put it all into sound. And that's the way I think about my art.
Not only do you play the piano exquisitely, but I understand that you went to school for something other than music.
Yes. I got a dual degree in biomedical engineering and jazz studies. I got that degree years ago. Math, the way my brain works, was always my favorite subject. That was the subject that I loved the most, and made the most sense to me. I was really into making connections, and I loved physics in high school and college. It just made sense to me in applying physics and physical concepts, electronics, things of that nature. But prior to that, in high school, I fractured my ankle playing football. And I remember sitting there in the doctor's office and looking at the wall, there were prosthetic limbs and all kinds of different prostheses. And I was like, “What is that?” It just sparked my curiosity. I read up on that aspect of biomedical engineering. There's a lot of other different aspects — whether it be bioinformatics, pharmaceutics, medical device production, and then prosthetics.
It's almost as if you were doing some listening in that doctor's office — as you said, playing by ear.
Take everything and always be inspired. I even have it on my Instagram handle: Never stop learning. Just keep an open mind about life and learning and picking up new skill sets.
How does it feel to have your debut album out?
It was really a dream come true to work with these musicians. They were my heroes growing up. The late Kenny Kirkland and the work that he did with Nat Reeves and Jeff “Tain” Watts. So that sound was always in my ear and I developed relationships with them over time, just playing in different settings as a sideman. And I thought, for my first record, why not put those minds together and just bring that sound back to the forefront? It was really a dream come true. A lot of the songs on that album were songs that meant a lot to me, pieces that they had played in the past, as well as a few standards of mine that I enjoyed playing as well.
Standards from people you've admired and continue to admire, like Herbie Hancock and Mulgrew Miller. You also have a song on there by Camden’s own Buster Williams. Do you have ties to Camden as well?
My dad was born in Camden; I have aunts, uncles born in Camden. My grandparents owned a restaurant in Camden, New Jersey that they constructed in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, actually right after he was assassinated. So yeah, Camden is definitely a huge part of my family as well. And Buster Williams, being from Camden, I thought it would be great to incorporate his music. And he's one of the baddest composers ever.
And what about Playing by Ear, for you, feels like home? You were able to pick the cats that you wanted, the music that meant a lot to you. How has it tied back to being Philly Made?
The intensity. I think that's the hallmark of the Philadelphia sound, and it has been for decades: intensity, taking risks on the bandstand, pushing limits, not playing it safe. I know that's definitely the way that Nat Reeves and Jeff “Tain” Watts play — very free, very intense, but still listening to each other and communicating.
Wallace Roney, Jr. is also there on trumpet, and has his own connection to the city as well.
Absolutely. Yeah, his father — the great Wallace Roney, Sr. — originated here in Philadelphia. I didn't get a chance to meet him, but I've known Wallace, Jr. for years. He would come down to the Clef Club and play every now and then. We were also part of Berklee City Music together, because he was coming through one of those North Jersey youth arts programs. And I was obviously coming through the Clef Club, so we got a chance to work together through Berklee City Music Program. We reunited in New York City about 10 years later, and we've been playing together a lot with the likes of Camille Thurman and Darrell Green Quartet. Bobby Watson as well; we'll both be on Mr. Watson's upcoming record.
There are so many people who come to Philadelphia and forge a connection that never dies, even after they leave. As someone from here, what do you think that thing is?
I think it's the authenticity, the grit, the grind, the passion of this city. It's really like no other place on Earth, really. It's very real. People tell it like it is here, and they tell it like it is in their music and their art as well. And people are very true to themselves. I think that genuineness and transparency — the authenticity of being in Philadelphia and just the “go hard or go home” kind of mentality — it keeps people here and who are I guess built for that kind of environment and intensity. It really makes the best out of musicians that come through here.
