Selected Performances
Artistic Research, Performances and Installations
Spatial Illusions as Radical Mindscapes: A Conversation about the Work of Richard Mayhew, Keyboard Performance Based on Richard Mayhew Exhibit, Santa Cruz MAH, May 5, 2024
Make Music Day: Maria Gaspar with James Gordon Williams, and Guillermo Galindo, "Principle of Alloys" Performance of Gaspar's Bars, San Jose Museum of Art, June 21, 2024
"The Worldmaking Aura of Sonic Blackness" Collaborative Performance with Moor Mother and James Gordon Williams, Music Center UC Santa Cruz, March 6, 2024
"The Healing". Solo Piano Concert. Music Center, UC Santa Cruz, November 1, 2023
Compositions. Collaboration with Maria Gaspar. Improvisation on Sculptures from Cook County Jail, Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, October 7th, 2023
Terri Lyne Carrington’s Presents Music for Abolition. Keyboard Improvisation on Nicholas Payton’s composition “Freedom Is No Fear,” Institute of the Arts and Sciences, UC Santa Cruz, June 8, 2023 (Other artists in the program included Sarah Elizabeth Charles, Camila Cortina Bello, Morgan Guerin, Nicole Mitchell, Elena Pinderhughes, Dianne Reeves, Matthew Stevens and Carl “Kokayi” Walker)
Falling to Rise Again, Solo Piano Performance, April in Santa Cruz Festival of New Music, San Francisco, CA, the Lab, April 30, 2023
Model Citizen, Here I Stand. Multidisciplinary Performance Exhibition with Crystal Z. Campbell, Living Arts, Tulsa, Oklahoma, December 7th, 2018-January 18th, 2019
You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. UCLA Hammer Museum, August 23, 2018
Piano performance in Studio Venezia by French Artist Xavier Veilhan who presented his work at the 57th International Art Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia, French Pavilion, 2017
You are mine. I see now, I’m a have to let you go. Suné Woods, Fred Moten & James Gordon Williams. Light Work, September 13, 2017
Outlaw Culture Music. Syracuse University, Community Folk Art Center, November 19, 2015
Solo piano improvisation for the world premiere of Cauleen Smith’s Crow Requiem & Speculations: Science Fiction, Chronopolitics, & Social Change. Everson Museum, April 7, 2015
Solo Feedback Piano Performance, Malmö Conservatory of Music, Sweden, 2011
Solo Feedback Piano Performance, UC San Diego Conrad Prebys Music Center, 2011
Gregory Porter, Idyllwild Jazz Festival, 2010
Exceptional Musicians-Essential Music 10th Anniversary, Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA, 2010
Anthony Davis and James Gordon Williams in a Duo Piano recital, Mandeville Recital Hall, UC San Diego, 2008
Charli Persip Trio, The Jazz Museum of Harlem, 2008
Masterclass & Concerto, Sull, Improvvisazione Jazz, PN Bar & Café, in Pordenone, Italy, September 18, 2008
Solo piano concert, The Istituto di Musica Della Pedemontana, Aviano, Italy, 2008
James Gordon Williams and Mark Dresser Duo, La Jolla Library, 2008
Intrinsic Evolution (2008) with Charli Persip, 2007
Charli Persip Quintet, Jazz Mobile, 2007
James Gordon Williams Quartet, Lenox Lounge,
James Gordon Williams Quartet, The Stone, 2007
James Gordon Williams, John Birks Gillespie Auditorium, New York City, 2006
Charli Persip Trio, Smoke Jazz Club,2006
James Gordon Williams Quartet, Smalls Jazz Club, 2006
Miles Griffith Quartet, Jazz Standard, 2006
Charli Persip Supersound, Minton's Playhouse, 2006
Charli Persip Supersound, Birdland Jazz Club, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Village Vanguard, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Green Mill Jazz Club, Chicago, 2005
James Gordon Williams Trio, Knitting Factory, New York City, 2005
Joseph Jarman Ensemble, Vision Festival, New York City, 2005
Charli Persip Supersound Band, New Jersey Jazz Festival, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Atina Jazz Festival, Italy, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Jazz à La Seyne, France, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Langnau Nights, Switzerland, 2005
Greg Osby 5, Malta Jazz Festival, 2004
Charli Persip Supersound Band, Ellington Jazz Festival, 2004
James Gordon Williams Trio, Celebration of Tom Otterness, Symphony Space, 2003
Unrepeatable Life, JGWMUSIC Records, 2003
Joseph Jarman Ensemble, "Dignified Dissonances In The History of Dirt!," Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, The Community Church of New York, 2003
James Gordon Williams Duo, Birdland Jazz Club, 1997 - 1998