Music teacher jazz musician David L. Williams dies at 81
Credit: Mr. Williams
Published: April 04, 2011
If you want to know what David L. Williams taught, visit jazz venues around Richmond and listen. His influence permeates the genre in the city and reaches far beyond.
Mr. Williams, who taught jazz in Richmond schools for five decades and led his own bands, died Tuesday in a Richmond hospital. He was 81.
A funeral will be held today at 1 p.m. at the Watkins & Son Funeral Home Community Chapel at 2701 Garland Ave. in Richmond. Interment will follow at Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia County. He was an Army veteran.
Mr. Williams taught in Richmond schools until he retired at 79 in 2009. His daughter, Angela W. Moss of Richmond, said he never missed a day of work during his entire tenure.
She was a student of her father's as well, learning to play the flute and clarinet, then adding the saxophone, her father's primary instrument, in a one-week crash course in order to play for a production of "Ain't Misbehavin.'
Moss said her father was a man of memorable sayings, including "Plenty practice prevents poor performance."
Moss, who directs the handbell choir at Third Street Bethel A.M.E. Church, said theirs was a musical household. Mr. Williams' wife, South African native Frances Tsepho Gow Williams, was a classically trained coloratura soprano. She died in 2009.
Mr. Williams turned out countless musicians. One of them is saxophonist James "Plunky" Branch, whose career spans 40 years and who recently recorded his 26th album with his band, Plunky & Oneness. A stalwart of the Richmond jazz scene, he plays in Paris, London and other foreign venues.
Branch was a sixth-grader at when Mr. Williams first taught him.
"He was steady, caring … so patient with us," said Branch. "I never saw him angry — exasperated yes, but never angry."
Mr. Williams led a quintet and a 17-piece band, Dave Williams and the Gentlemen of Sound.
"It was an inspiration to have a teacher who was a performing professional musician," said Branch. "As a student, I loved to play with him. He was always so 'on it.' Years later, I had the opportunity to play with him professionally. I sat beside him and played tenor sax while he played alto sax. It was a great honor."
Mr. Williams' influence isn't limited to students who pursued musical careers. V. Scott Hamilton, a 1991 graduate of John Marshall High School, is a business analyst for the Bank of America in Los Angeles. Mr. Williams taught him music from fifth grade on into high school.
"I remember him saying, 'They will see you before they hear you.' You knew the way you presented yourself would matter," Hamilton said. "That's true no matter what you do."
At his funeral today, his daughter said, some of his former students will perform in celebration of Mr. Williams' life. She, too will play a tune, the first her father taught her. It's a parlor song written by Carrie Jacobs Bond, "I Love You Truly."
In addition to Moss, Mr. Williams' survivors include another daughter, DeLise Graham-Hill of Midway, Ky., a classical pianist; a son, David Gow Williams of Richmond, who played with his father in his big band; four grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
(804) 649-6844
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