Mars Williams: The Albums That Shaped My Career

Share this:

A native of the Windy City, saxophonist Mars Williams grew up enamored with the jazz explorations of players like Roscoe Mitchell, Eric Dolphy and Albert Ayler. Today, he’s most familiar to audiences through his association with the likes of the Waitresses and the Psychedelic Furs or his longstanding acid jazz group Liquid Soul. Then there are his four volumes of Albert Ayler tributes for Christmas (!), which along with his free-jazz NRG Ensemble offer insight into his musical mind.

It all makes sense to him, and to many of his musical compatriots. Waitresses leader “Chris [Butler] was really open-minded. He listened to a lot of free jazz stuff also. If you listen to Waitresses albums, there’s a lot of odd meter times with this girl in front who was almost rapping. On stage I would have bari, tenor, alto, soprano, clarinet, Tibetan conch horn, musettes, a rack of gongs. My solos went out. There is a definite link.”

Mars Williams joined us to discuss the albums that shaped his career:

ROSCOE MITCHELL – SOUND (1966): The cool thing about Sound when I first heard it there was so much space. It was a different approach to music. I heard it in the early ’70s [and was intrigued by] the tune “Ornette,” the comping, the intensity of it. “Sound 1” was a whole new approach to free improvisation, to creating space and atmosphere. It was all spontaneous. I was very influenced by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. They’re in my Top 10 greatest bands of all time. This record’s sound was like the precursor to the group, with Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors – three of the members of the Art Ensemble.



TALKING HEADS – REMAIN IN LIGHT (1980): It really turned my head around about production. The Talking Heads with [Brian] Eno producing. They used a lot of loops, tribal rhythms, African influences. I talked to [Talking Heads drummer] Chris Frantz, and he said it was influenced by Fela Kuti. It incorporates this whole new modern way of producing, creating grooves, then chopping it up to play over the top. It really did something to me. Even today when I hear it, it is really inspiring. Some bands are getting acclaim, jazz musicians like Jeff Parker are sort of doing this – taking grooves they’ve done, chopping it up, and making loops underneath. It changed my whole approach to writing and working in a studio: Layering, more linear instead of harmonic. I still think it’s one of the greatest albums of all time.

ALBERT AYLER – LIVE IN GREENWICH VILLAGE (1967): It’s tough [to choose just one inspirational record, because] there’s so many of them. There are a lot of compositions and themes. Any of his records, his big giant sound. It’s so soulful and spiritual. It goes deep into my soul. It’s so different. I first heard Spiritual Unity when I was 19. It definitely shaped my career. The live approach – it’s great. On vinyl it was four or five tracks, but it was a double CD. I grew up seeing these groups on the south side of Chicago. Anthony Braxton, Kenny Wheeler – it was a whole new approach.

WHAT I’M LISTENING TO NOW: Liquid Soul’s Lost Soul, Vol. 1 (2021). Liquid Soul had a Sunday night residence at the Elbo Room. We added more people, live music and rap. Then I started writing specifically for the group. We outgrew the room and went to the Double Door. There were free jams – somebody starts, then others join in. From 1993 to 2002, I recorded 80 percent of it. I have cassettes, DATs, mini-discs; we have tons on ADATs, DA88. I’m digitizing. It’s tedious. During this pandemic I started editing, cleaning up tracks. Then I found some unreleased studio stuff. So here’s this retrospective, 1994 to 2013. When I step back and listen now, this record is killer. It really documents the band. We had over 22 people in and out of it.


Ross Boissoneau