• DIGIPACK EDITION

An oft-quoted proverb says that when an elder dies, a library burns down. That certainly applies to Mars Williams. Beginning with his childhood study of the clarinet, he accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about music of all sorts. He did a Bb version of The Real Book, exchanged lessons for transcription services from Roscoe Mitchell and was Anthony Braxton’s copyist. When Hal Russell died, he became the keeper of the NRG Ensemble’s charts.

He shared that knowledge freely with a vast array of musicians across genres and scenes. He played post-punk rock with the Psychedelic Furs, contemporary groove music with Liquid Soul, little instrument explorations in Toy Story, multi-disciplinary cross-collaboration with Devil’s Whistle, total improv with Extraordinary Popular Delusions, tight new wave with the Waitresses, savage rock with Wayne Kramer, the Albert Ayler songbook with Witches & Devils, and of course the Ayler Xmas program of seasonal that he tour around the USA and Europe. He was a founding member of Peter Brötzmann’s Chicago Tentet, and toured doggedly with contemporary and younger free music players including Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love, Tollef Østvang and Vasco Trilla. To play with him or hear him play was to find out something new about music, and have a blast doing it. He did it all with absolute commitment, giving as much to an audience barely bigger than the band at a pass-the-hat gig as he did to stadium crowds with the Furs.

PERSONNEL:
Mars Williams - (reeds, toy instruments)
Vasco Trilla - (drums, percussion)

Recorded at Robadors, Barcelona, Spain on July 11, 2019

TRACKS:
01. Awakening #1
02. Awakening #2
03. Awakening #3
04. Awakening #4