Mr. Fred Williams
Boston, MA

Jay -- What is your educational background? 
Mr. Williams – I graduated from high school after my tour in the Army, and went on to the Boston Conservatory of Music. I studied the flute and clarinet in Germany, graduated from the Devry Technical Institute and have had advanced training in digital logic in the industrial department in Waltham, MA.

Jay – Did you play while in the Army? 
Mr. Williams – Yes, I was in the 427th Army Band which was the first unit to be integrated under former President Harry S. Truman. We had special buses that toured all over Germany and we recorded in Norway.

Jay – Did you run into any racial problems while serving in the Army band?
Mr. Williams – Yes, we were beat up all over Europe because the white girls liked musicians.

Jay – Did you run into any racial problems after the war stateside?
Mr. Williams – Yes, when I was studying at the Boston Conservatory the Dean accused me of not writing my music because he said that “Black people could not write music.”

Jay – Have you traveled much since leaving the Army?
Mr. Williams – Yes, my wife, who has a Masters in Nursing, and me have been to Australia, Rome, Venice, and Paris on leisure.

Jay – Did you come up with any notable old school Jazz musicians?
Mr. Williams – Yes, Quincy Jones (composer and former trumpeter) was a street musician who played in a club in Boston. He would sit in and play all night. Louis Farrakhan (Muslim leader) was a dancer at one of the lodges here and Thelonious Monk (former Jazz pianist) was one of his students in New York. I also played with a guy that played with the late Louis Armstrong.

Jay – How do you teach your students the free-flowing art of Jazz? 
Mr. Williams – My way of teaching is to teach them how to improvise.

Jay – What is your opinion of the state of Jazz today? 
Mr. Williams – Jazz today is still progressing, musicians are well schooled, and even the Japanese and Chinese now respect Jazz musicians. America, however, is less impressed and they push novices.