Jamire Williams is a multidisciplinary artist who functions in the medium of music performance, performance art, composition, and still life sculptures. His practice focuses on faith, spirituality, roots and the evidence of those things which are not seen. His list of collaborators is high in prestige, including Solange Knowles, Herbie Hancock, Virgil Abloh, Kara Walker, Jason Moran, Dev Hynes, Robert Glasper, Moses Sumney, Kahlil Joseph, Jamal Cyrus, Ari Marcopoulos, Christian Scott, Jeff Parker, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Chassol and Carlos Niño. Williams has a deep resume as a recording artist, and has distinguished himself across avant-garde, jazz, and indie music genres seamlessly. His 2016 lead-artist effort ///// EFFECTUAL is a powerful solo percussion statement that established his affinity for minimalism, his approach of the drum kit as a canvas for “painting,” and his embrace of abstraction as a holistic practice in sound. In addition to this, he was the touring drummer for avant-pop artist Blood Orange for several years. “Working with Jamire is like working with someone who knows the map of your brain, better than you even do. In London, taxi drivers have to take a test called “The Knowledge” in order to know the streets by heart alone. This is how I would describe Jamire’s instincts and intuition in regards to music. It’s like he was there when the idea was formed.” – Dev Hynes
He was a prominent performer at The Whitney Museum of American Art for Jason Moran’s exhibition Jazz On A High Floor In The Afternoon (2019) and has since presented and/or installed works at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Brookfield Place (New York, NY). As a featured musician on a plethora of major and indie record label releases, the culmination of those endeavors is clearly portrayed throughout his most recent solo release But Only After You Have Suffered out on International Anthem. Though it is a project that the artist has stepped away from, the gravity of its production is ever apparent. “If constraint is both virtuous and virtuosic, then poetic utterance provides the musical device for song to bleed back through; Jamire Williams’ offerings are conjurations setting light on this very place.” – The Quietus
Jamire was a key contributor and writer on Solange’s critically-acclaimed 2019 album When I Get Home, a direct expression of her appreciation for her roots in Houston, Texas (the city where Jamire was born, raised, and currently resides, as well). Since relocating to Houston in 2021, Williams has been an artist in residence at Lawndale Art & Performance Center (Houston, TX) as a member of their 2021/22 Artist Studio Program and was recently granted artist in residence for Ballroom Sessions-The Farther Place at Ballroom Marfa for 2023/24.
DocFest Houston 2024 