The Davey Williams Guitar Festival invited many of Birmingham's most active improvising solo guitarists. The event started with a sidewalk parade. Guitarists strapped mini-amps to their belts and performed on the street for the traffic on Hwy 78/ First Avenue North.
Below: friends start to gather for the festivities.
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Each night began with guest guitarists stationed all around the gallery, taking their turn in 3 minute solos as the performance was was a Round Robin idea as the audience followed @ the room. After they had robined twice around the first portion of the concert was completed.
After the first half of the concert was Round Robins, the second portion of the even featured improvisationsperformance on EVA's stage. Friday featured an improv quartet playing improvisations on experimental guitars by Jean Jacques Gaudel. Saturday night's featured guitarist Brady Sharp from Chattanooga Tennessee. Sunday afternoon assembled an ad hoc improvising large group of community members & UAB jazz ensemble members to perform 3 orchestrations by conductor/arranger Clifford McPeek of Davey Williams guitar solos from his album Antennae Road. Sunday's event concluded with an excerpt from the Davey Williams documentary film by local film maker Lee Shook. The following photos are classic Davey Williams. Note Williams playing guitar with an eye chart!
Krispy Kreme coffee! One of Davey's favorite Southern late night gig indulgences!
Always creative, stoning reality like a dream state,
a lover, a writer, a pilot,
a soldier, a marksman!
The Davey Williams Commemorative Concert at East Village Arts of Birmingham was followed by by a parallel commemorative event held on Monday, March 13 at Roulette Intermedia in Brooklyn, New York. It was a packed house! Birmingham's Davey Williams has been called "One of the three founding fathers of American free improvised guitar." His early exploration in extended techniques and theoretical writing on the subject of free improvisation was consequential to the movement . He was founding editor of the improvisor, the international journal of free improvisation, celebrating 30 years as a publication. He performed since 1974 with his musical partner, LaDonna Smith, touring Europe and beyond. He was in bands and collaborations including Curlew (NY) , Fuzzy Sons, and O.K. Nurse (Bham). He wrote profusely and authored three books, Fried Egg, Solo Gig, and Charmed I'm Sure and many articles in music publications, surrealist journals. He painted and maintained a whimsical, if not profound presence of mind. Davey is surely one of Birmingham's musical masters. Loved and admired by so many, he performed 1000's of concerts! The following are a few images from his prolific musical output.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davey_Williams_(musician)
Indeed! Which did come first?
-Davey Williams
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