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time to time. I recently went to Japan with her for shows in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. Traveling the US in the early 2000s, Brother Williams was introduced to jam sessions in cities like New York City, Atlanta, and Philadelphia, where he witnessed a useful platform to cultivate upcoming musicians. He saw jam sessions as an opportunity to prepare younger musicians to hit the stage with some of the best artists in each of those cities. Williams is a true musicians’ musician who wanted to import what he learned on the road back to Dallas. So, after touring in 2006, he started his own weekly jam session and open mic night at the now-defunct Prophet Bar in Dallas’s Deep Ellum area. Every Wednesday for 18 years, he provided a platform for aspiring musicians, artists, and those wishing to express themselves musically to come together, fellow- ship, and create. “Younger musicians looked up to us, so they would come just to have an opportunity to play with us,” Williams recalls. To ensure his jam sessions were filled with up-and-coming talent, Wil- liams would drive to UNT in Denton to pick up musicians and bring them to Dallas to play. Bands like Snarky Puppy and artists Leon Bridges got their start at these sessions. “It was my way of giving back, having conversations about being a working musician, bringing back the music that I learned on the road, and sharing it with the city. To this day, the Dallas scene has produced so many artists from the sessions,” Williams says proudly. “As a Grammy Award-winner
“AS A GRAMMY AWARD WINNER AND MUSIC DIRECTOR, I’VE BEEN ABLE TO PUT OTHER YOUNGER MUSICIANS FROM DFW ONTO MAJOR GIGS, AND THAT’S THE THING, IT’S ABOUT PASSING IT FORWARD. I WAS BROUGHT IN LIKE THAT ...”
“Erykah is like a sister to me. I’ve been working with her since around 1999, when she started working on her second album, Mama’s Gun [2000]. I was called for some of the
recording sessions for that record; it was my first time being a part of her albums. I joined her band around 2000 and began touring with her all around the world, and I still do from
WINTER 2025-2026 ♦ THE JOURNAL 81
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