Memphis is a town dripping with soul and the richest of musical histories. It’s also the home to piano wild man Jason D. Williams who will bring his outrageous show to Houston’s Continental Club on Friday, July 21 after a long-awaited return.
“I have played there a few times and love it, absolutely love it and cannot wait to get back there,” says Williams. He was turned onto the Continental Club’s in Austin and Houston by his dear friend Dale Watson who he will tour with in March of next year along with Reverend Horton Heat as well as joining Watson for the first ever Boogie Woogie Fest in Marshall, Texas in September.
It’s often said that reality is stranger than fiction and the story of how Williams came to land in Memphis about 40 years ago to become one of the finest piano players with amazing links to musical legends like Memphis Slim, Sleepy LaBeef and Jerry Lee Lewis proves that in folds.
Of course in true Williams fashion, humor is the main ingredient to his tale as anyone who has ever had the pleasure of seeing him perform can attest to the non-stop entertainment he provides with his entire being as he keeps his band on their toes gliding between “Amazing Grace,” “In The Hall of Mountain King” and “Great Balls Of Fire”, sometimes balancing an audience members’ drinks on his head only occasionally slowing his pounding to tell a joke.
Williams, originally from El Dorado, Arkansas was living and playing in Atlanta where he had a regular gig playing piano at a comedy club. He got to work one night and was met by an enormous, slapstick style chain around the building and word about the club having some trouble with the IRS.
Guessing his show was not going to happen, Williams went home defeated but determined to figure out what was next for him during that Christmas season only to find his apartment had been robbed.
Interpreting this as a sign to move it along and go back home for a spell, Williams started driving back to Arkansas through Memphis hitting a snowstorm along the way in which his car died right in front of the historic Peabody Hotel.
Entering the lavish lobby, Williams saw a friendly face in the empty piano bench and asked if he could play for the small crowd which like him was stuck inside due to the weather. The owners told him to go ahead as their regular piano player was unable to make it in through the snow.
“I had a captive audience, a piano there to play and the owners happen to be there so they asked if I would like to play there. I said I would love to, and the rest is history after that. I don’t know what history yet because I still got a lot to go,” says Williams.
Though times have changed and the Peabody these days houses a self-playing piano, Williams played his weekly gig for many years leading him to entertain locals and visitors, famous and non-famous alike.
“I think they put that automatic thing in there since I’ve been there so that maybe I wouldn’t come in there and play,” he says in his typical funny man Arkansas draw.
“Memphis was a wonderful place and still is. Jerry Lee Lewis would come in there quite often and perform because maybe it was one of the only places really that had a piano being performed and that was always a hook for Jerry Lee. There was always a very receptive audience there and those years were wonderful at the Peabody Hotel.”
Williams went on to sign with RCA and later Sun Records and though he is often compared to his mentor Lewis, serving as inspiration behind Dennis Quaid’s interpretation of “The Killer” as well as the film featuring his hands on close ups, Williams is much more than a Lewis copy as he seems to be able to do just about anything on those 88 keys.
“What ends up happening is I am an audience member as much as anybody there. I’ve often said I’m Jackson Pollock meets Joe Namath meets Vladimir Horowitz. The Horowitz part being that I can play variations going from classical to jazz to ragtime, Joe the energy and Pollock you know, just that sometimes it is very splatter painting because if I’m not being entertained, I go to something else.”
“I’ve often said I’m Jackson Pollock meets Joe Namath meets Vladimir Horowitz.”
Growing up, Williams was exposed to not only the big band sounds of his parents’ generation but simultaneously seeking out other genres like guitar great Leo Kottke and John Fahey mixed in with Scott Joplin, country and western and jazz heroes like Phineas Newborn.
“You mix all those up, and maybe I should have just picked one and rode that horse off the cliff, but I enjoyed so much music that sometimes I wonder if that hurt me but, in the end, it did help me to learn all these styles of music.”
It’s not only amazing how Williams can move so quickly on the keys in combination with his on-stage antics but add in his abilities as a band leader and that’s where his musical education really shines, a skill no doubt learned from his time with fellow Arkansas native and “Human Jukebox” Sleepy LaBeef.
After playing some Boogie Woogie so good at the age of three that his neighbors began calling each other to come over and witness a young Williams on the piano, Williams continued his journey at home until being recruited by LaBeef to tour in his band where a teenage Williams went from rehearsing in an old filling station to playing the Playboy Club in Manhattan.
“He wanted you to know all of the songs, and really you needed to know all of those anyway. It was a great learning experience for me, not only because of his repertoire but also because of his presence onstage; how you conduct yourself and how you win an audience over. He did it the old fashion way, one club at a time.”
After a disagreement up north, that left Williams running circles around a stunned taxi driver as the 6’7” LaBeef chased him in a rage, Williams briefly made his home in Boston where again, a combination of dumb luck and his magnetic talent took him from living in the streets to holding a residency at Faneuil Hall.
He saw a performer there and thought to himself that if that man ever took a break he would make his move and sure enough he did. “I worked there for a long time. I don’t know what ever happened to that guy that was playing piano, I hope he’s not living on the street.”
After his time in Boston, Williams relocated to New York prior to moving to Atlanta and working at the comedy club which led him back down South and to Memphis.
Like LaBeef, Williams has fought the road playing nonstop throughout his career and recording studio albums including last year’s release Lucky Ol’ Son which again highlights his range as an artist as he tackles some bluegrass tracks like Earl Scruggs’s instrumental “Foggy Mountain Breakdown.”
When asked if he ever received any formal training for his spectacular playing style of course, the answer is no. “It was all self-taught. I never seeked it out really, I was lucky you know. I wouldn’t say it came easy, but it came my way,” says Williams adding coyly, “but I guess those sort of “snowstorms” sort of helped me out.”
Jason D. Williams will perform on Friday, July 21 at The Continental Club, 3700 Main, 9 p.m, $15-25.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
