Once described by music critic Robert Christgau of The Village Voice as “probably the best drummer in the world,” Tony Williams was born on December 12, 1945 in Chicago. Williams grew up in Boston and began playing drums when he was quite young. He was playing professionally with saxophonist Sam Rivers when he was only 13 years old. By age 16 he was playing with another well-known saxophonist, Jackie McLean.

Tony Williams became known world-wide when he was chosen by Miles Davis to play drums in what became known as Davis’ “Second Great Quintet” in 1963. Williams was still only 17 when he first sat down to play the drums with Davis, Herbie Hancock and Ron Carter. Williams pre-dated Wayne Shorter’s arrival in the band and initially played with George Coleman and sometimes Sam Rivers on saxophone. Davis lauded Williams’ importance to that innovative ensemble in his autobiography.

At the same time he was playing with Davis, Williams recorded two albums on the Blue Note label and worked on several records as a sideman at that label, too. He can be heard on albums by Herbie Hancock, Grachan Moncur III, Charles Lloyd, Kenny Dorham and Eric Dolphy.

Williams left Davis’ employ in 1969 and that same year formed his own group called Tony Williams Lifetime. It featured John McLaughlin on guitar and Larry Youngs playing organ along with former Cream bassist Jack Bruce. This was a pioneering group in the jazz-fusion realm, and they released their first album, “Emergency!,” in 1969 on the Verve label.
​
In the mid-1970s Williams reunited with Hancock, Shorter and Carter along with trumpeter Freddie Hubbard to form the group V.S.O.P that recorded for Columbia and toured for several years. In 1979 Williams played with McLaughlin and bassist Jaco Pastorius at the Havana Jazz Festival. This performance by the short-lived group that called themselves the “Trio of Doom” was released on CD in 2007.

In the 1980s Tony Williams returned to Blue Note Records and released a series of albums for them. During his career Williams also played with Chet Baker, Hank Jones, McCoy Tyner, Stanley Clarke, Carlos Santana, Yoko Ono and Wynton Marsalis. During the last decades of his life Tony Williams lived and taught in the San Francisco Bay area. He died after suffering a heart attack following routine gallbladder surgery in 1997. Tony Williams was only 51 years old.

Here is a link to a recording of the “Trio of Doom” made in 1979:

"TRIO OF DOOM"