December 6 at
All Souls at Sundown:

Ben Williams, bass
with Aaron Goldberg, piano

and the poetry of Billy Collins

Born and raised in Washington, D.C., electric and upright bass player Ben Williams graduated from Duke Ellington School of the Arts in 2002, received his BA from Michigan State University, and is currently studying for his MA at Juilliard. He performs and composes various styles of music including jazz, R&B, soul, gospel, and classical. Williams has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Stefon Harris, Mulgrew Miller, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride Big Band and many others, and opened for John Legend, Kirk Franklin, Eric Roberson, and Herbie Hancock. He recently won the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition.

No poet since Robert Frost has combined critical acclaim with popular appeal like Billy Collins, two-term Poet Laureate of the U.S. and best-selling author of ten volumes of poems. “At once accessible and profound, his work makes him a natural people’s poet” (Boston Herald).