kimo williams
Creative Artist
KIMO Williams
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PDF of biography
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Biography
James Kimo Williams was born in 1950 in Amityville, New York, and spent much of his childhood divided between Air Force bases, the urban neighborhoods of Baltimore, the backwards towns of Mississippi and his grandparents sharecropper farm in North Carolina, with no running water and his routine day was picking tobacco, plowing fields and tending livestock on their rural farm.
His experiences at the age of fourteen in Biloxi, Mississippi made a deep impression on him as he witnessed first-hand the segregated lifestyle in the Southern states. He credits this experience as the origin of his life-long ambition to persevere regardless of obstacles, and further led to his passion to create his own identity and professional career as a musician and educator.
In 1968, he moved to Hawaii to join his father (a career Air Force Sergeant) and attended Leilehua High School. He always had a guitar with him (though he did not play it well) and played his favorite songs in the school hallways. He also took up sports and was an all-star football performer with a scholarship invitation from Arizona State as well as setting the triple-jump record on the school track-team.
The night before enlisting in the US Army on July 4, 1969, he attended his first major music concert: Jimi Hendrix playing at the Waikiki Bowl. He was so inspired by this concert and the music of Jimi Hendrix, that he dedicated himself to music and playing guitar.
After basic training, he was sent to Viet Nam (the day after his 20th birthday), where he served with the 25th Combat Engineer Battalion in Lai Khe, building roads and clearing land in the jungle. An Army entertainment service director heard him playing guitar at one of the service clubs, and suggested that he form a band to perform for troops in the field: for two months, Kimo and his band, The Soul Coordinators, traveled to remote areas throughout South Vietnam, setting up their drums and amplifiers in jungle mud, often with their music competing with artillery fire.
He and his band performed in hospital corridors, in dayrooms, at officer club picnics and anywhere that would make a difference in the lives of those who were serving. Kimo received a special award directly from General Creighton Abrams for his service to the morale and well- being of soldiers fighting in Vietnam.
After leaving Viet Nam in November of 1970, Kimo returned to Hawaii, and began playing with several local rock bands.
In 1972, he left Hawaii (he adopted the Hawaiian name for Jim (Kimo), to keep his ties to his home) and using his GI Bill, he applied to and was accepted to the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.
During his four years at Berklee (starting as a guitarist who could barely read music), he developed considerable compositional talents and eventually created his own harmonic concepts (Diagonal Harmony). He started composing music that combined jazz, rock and classical styles. Also, while a student at Berklee, he formed his innovative 30-piece ensemble, the Paumalu Symphony, as a vehicle for his unique style of composing. After graduating in 1976 with a BA in composition, he spent a year teaching at Berklee.
In 1976 he met his music partner and future wife Carol, a fellow Berklee student.
Kimo and Carol married in 1978 and together joined the Army Band program, spending a year with the 9th Infantry Division Band at Ft. Lewis, Washington. Kimo went on to attend Officer Candidate School and was commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in 1980.
His first assignment brought him to Fort Sheridan, IL: close enough to Chicago that he and Carol could continue producing and performing with his large ensemble (now called Kimotion) and their small-group Williams and Williams, in local clubs and concert venues. They set up a music publishing company (One Omik Music), as well as launched their own record company (Little Beck Music). To record their music, they rehabbed an old storefront in Chicago, and built and operated a recording studio there.
In 1983 he earned his MA in Management from Webster University.
In 1987, Kimo resigned from the active duty Army as a Captain to pursue music full time. He taught at Sherwood Conservatory of Music in Chicago, and in the Music Department at Columbia College Chicago.
He completed his military service in the Army Reserves by becoming the Bandmaster for the 85th Division Army Reserve Band, and retired from the Army Reserves as a Chief Warrant Officer in 1996.
In 1996, he accepted a position in the Arts Entertainment and Media Management Department of Columbia College. He is currently a tenured associate professor teaching the business of music.
Kimo released his Vietnam-themed cathartic symphonic-rock-big-band album called War Stories in 1991, which received critical acclaim from national publications such as Downbeat magazine (4 1/2 stars). His second album, Tracking, was released in November 2001, and featured his friend Vinnie Colaiuta on drums (formerly with Sting), and actor/musician Gary Sinise (CSI: NY) on bass, who co-produced the album. This CD also included a track dedicated to his second cousin Tupac Shakur.
Kimo wrote his first symphony Symphony For the Sons of Nam (SFSON) in 1990. SFSON has been performed by the Savannah, Detroit, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Indianapolis and Nashville Symphony Orchestras, as well as others both nationally and internationally. This score has been regularly programmed on NPRs Performance Today every Memorial day from 1991 to 1997. In 1994 is second symphony was commissioned by AT&T and he titled it Fanfare For Life.
In all, Kimo has written five string quartets, three symphonies, and composed the music for a Steppenwolf Theatre production of A Streetcar Named Desire in 1997. That same year he also directed the Goodman Theatres production of the August Wilson play, Ma Raineys Black Bottom.
In 1999 the Lancaster (PA) Symphony Orchestra selected Kimo to receive their Composer of the Year award, with a performance of his works, as well as recognition for his contribution to American Music.
In 1998, Kimo created the United States Viet Nam Arts Program (USVAP)to produce collaborative works of music and art with American and Vietnamese artists. He has returned to Viet Nam several times since 1998 and continues to lecture at conservatories there. Mostly on American Jazz.
In 1999, the West Point Military Academy commissioned Kimo to compose music to commemorate their 2002 bicentennial, for this commission he wrote Buffalo Soldiers. This piece was recently performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta, and is featured on the CD Buffalo Soldiers, released in 2006. A review by Chicago Tribune critic John Van Rhein wrote: What Buffalo Soldiers sets out to do, it does most effectively. Both the musical layout and the uplifting tone of the 15-minute piece recall Aaron Copelands Lincoln Portrait. This work includes a narration (by the composer) from excerpts of a Colin Powell speech given at the dedication of the Buffalo Soldiers monument at Ft. Leavenworth Kansas. Colin Powell personally gave Kimo permission to use his words.
He has also completed a screenplay based on the courts martial of Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point. Kimos most current project is the Lt. Dan Band, a classic-rock group he founded in 2003 with Gary Sinise, and which continues to perform for USO shows throughout the world.
In 2007 Kimo was selected as a Fulbright Specialist and through this program, he is providing jazz education and developing curriculums in Vietnam.
Kimo lives in Chicago with singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Carol Williams, and after 30 years of marriage they continue to collaborate in all aspects of their creative endeavors. On flute and tenor saxophone, she has performed with his big band both on recordings and in concert, and is a featured soloist on his War Stories CD. She also has her own group that performs her original music and Kimo performs with her on electric bass and guitar. She help developed and has created program notes and titles for his orchestral, jazz, and concert works. Specifically she wrote the narrative recited by Gary Sinise on the recording of American Soldier, and has contributed musical and harmonic structures for Buffalo Soldiers and other works. She was also a former sax and flute player in the Lt. Dan Band.
Kimo is currently devoted most of his creative energies to film-making and photography. He is working on a film adaptation of an epic poem written and illustrated by his daughter
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James Kimo Williams
Education:
Project Management Institute Seminar - Certificate of training (2003)
Depaul University, Chicago IL - Graduate coursework in Marketing (1985)
Webster University, St. Louis MO - MA in Management and Human Relations (1983)
American Management Association (AMA) - Seminar studies in management (1982)
Army Personnel School Ft. Harrison IN - Diploma, Personnel and Organizational Administration (1980)
Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma WA - Graduate coursework in Music Composition (1979)
Army School of Music, Norfolk VA - Diploma, Performance (bass) (1978)
Berklee College of Music, Boston MA - Bachelor of Music in Composition (1976),
Private Instruction with Dr. Hugo Norden - Counterpoint; Michael Gibbs, Jazz Composition (1975) [to top]
Employment:
Columbia College Chicago (February 1997- Present)
Full Time Faculty - Arts Entertainment Media Management Program (AEMMP) (Tenured February 1998)
Duties (1999 - 2009):
-Coordinate the Music Business Concentration to include supervising fourteen instructors
-Develop and coordinate the Computer Uses For Managers curriculum to include interviewing and hiring part-time instructors
-Teach music production and music business classes
-Advise undergraduate and graduate students to include development of Graduate Thesis
Accomplishments
-Through meetings with part-time faculty, revised the multi-section production curriculum and the multi-section
Computer Uses For Managers Curriculum to insure consistency horizontally and vertically.
-Developed new cross-sectional syllabi for both areas to insure the AEMMP could gather necessary
data for future formal student assessment of these areas
-Through redesign of course curriculum in Music Production, helped increase the total number
of music business students to be the highest by concentration in the college for the first time.
Present:
Teach Music Business and Production classes
National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum (October 2003 -October 2004)
Executive Director
Duties
-Promote synergy and performance advantages to achieve business and operational improvements.
-Gain and sustain the commitment of Board of Director leadership, ensuring the engagement of all team members,
and providing opportunities for involvement in the program that embrace's the artists and the community.
-Assume responsibility and accountability for the financial performance of the museum.
-Provide on-going results (metrics) to demonstrate that the museum goals and objectives are on target.
-Raised $140,000 through the implementation of a fund raising plan and founded the Above and Beyond Patriot Award
-Developed community visibility and met with Mayor Richard Daley to discuss the Museum plans
-Developed and implemented plans that provided for the completion of the third floor exhibit areaat a cost of $104,000.00
Columbia College Chicago
Artist-in- Residence Sound Department (September1996 - January 1997)
-Developed course concept for, and taught, Computer-Based Sound Production (Sound)
-Instructor of Introduction to Management (AEMMP)
Artist-In Residence Music Department (September1990 - September 1996)
-Wrote curriculum and taught:
Studio Production for Musicians curriculum
Computer Music Printing (Finale) course
Music Theory For Engineers course
Demo Production
-Department Coordinator for the multi-section Music Workshop freshman classes
-Instructor of Harmony and Ear Training, Orchestration and Music Theory
Part-time faculty, Music Department (September 1989 - May 1990)
-Instructor of Introduction to Music Theory
Served on the All College Council, Tenure Committee, Curriculum Committee, Harassment Committee and other college wide committees
Sherwood Conservatory of Music - (February 1987 - December 1989)
Music Instructor/ Jazz &Commercial Music Coordinator
-Private instructions - Guitar, Jazz Harmony, Jazz History
-Creator and Director of the Sherwood Conservatory of Music Jazz ensemble program
Duties:
- Recruiting: Through on-site personal communications with high school band directors, recruited students from New Trier High School, Curry High School and other Chicago Public schools, to participate in the Jazz ensemble. The Sherwood Jazz Ensemble was the first student ensemble to play as part of the National Academy of Record Arts and Sciences (NARAS) Grammy In The --- Schools Program
-Rehearsing/Conducting: Composed, arranged and conducted jazz, rock/pop and seasonal music for the jazz ensemble
-Community Service: The Sherwood Jazz Ensemble performed for community based organizations to include performances at commercial banks
-Founded and developed the curriculum for Commercial Music Studies
Accomplishments:
-Purchased and installed an eight stationed music synthesizer lab
-Instructor of MIDI Concepts for Beginners, MIDI for Educators (for Chicago Public School Teachers), Music Printing with Finale and Demo Production
United States Army Reserve - Army Warrant Officer Bandmaster (February 1990 to December 1994)
Duties/Responsibilities:
-Manage $100,000.00 budget
-Recruit new band members
-Conduct Army Reserve Band as part of the United Sates Army Morale and Welfare initiatives. Conducted in concert, music from Berlioz to John Williams
-Coordinate and organize community-based performances
-Counsel and advise 30 member ensemble as it relates to professional and personal growth
-Respond effectively and efficiently to directives and requirements from superiors
Northeastern Illinois University (1984)
Part Time Faculty
-Developed and taught a course in Jazz Harmony
United States Regular Army - Captain, Adjutant Generals Corp. (February 1977 February 1987)
Berklee College of Music(June 1976 to December 1977)
-Taught jazz harmony and ensemble performance
Self-employed
Music Publisher - One Omik Music- BMI/ Harry Fox Publications
-Applied Music Theory For Managers Engineers Producers and Artists(2nd Edition)- Textbook (2008)
-Applied Music Theory For Managers Engineers Producers and Artists -Textbook (2002)
-The Digital Producer - Professional Paper for Berklee Alumni Newsletter (2001)
-Classical Music in Chicago- Professional Research Paper for the Newberry Library and their History of Chicago Encyclopedia (1995)
-Diagonal Harmony- Manuscript, a new concepts in compositional harmony (unpublished).
-The Evolving Symphony Orchestra- Professional paper presented at the Columbia College Arts and Collaborations Symposium (December 1995.
-Music scores and arrangements
Commercial Record Company - Little Beck Music (LBM) Producer and Engineer Releases:
-Kimo and The Paumalu Symphony -War Stories featuring Mike Stern,Victor Bailey,and others, received critical reviews to include four and one half stars from Downbeat magazine.
-Carol Williams - Self-titled CD 1991
-Carol Williams - Small Town Girl 1997
-Carol Williams - Musical Prayers 1998
-Carol Williams - I Can Live With That 2006
-Kimotion - A Streetcar Named Desire (music from the Steppenwolf production)
-Kimo Williams and Kimotion - Tracking featuring Michael Brecker, Vinnie Colaiuta, Victor Bailey and other nationally recognized jazz artist
Kimo Williams and Kimotion - Kimotion Live with Vinnie Vinnie Colaiuta [to top]
-Buffalo Soldiers -Three symphonies performed by the St Petersburg Russian Symphony includes Symphony For The Sons of Nam, Fanfare For Life and Buffalo Soldiers.
Engineer/Owner- Recording facility (LBM Recording Studio) Constructed and managed a commercial music recording facility.
Multi-Media Development and Productions (LBM Multimedia)
Plan, construct and produce multi-media Web-based and Computer-based productions
Productions:
On-line interactive web-based courses
Flash oriented presentation platforms
Student Orientation/recruiting DVD for the Arts Entertainment Media Management Program (in development)
Music Production Services (LBM Productions)
-Computer-based music printing (Finale)
-Musical group performances - Duos to Big Band
-Electric Bass performer
-Compose Music for Theater and Dance
-Musical Director Services
-Composer/Arranger
Accomplishments/Productions:
-Affection - ballet performed by the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago (June 1997)
-Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - Musical Director at the Goodman Theater (1997) (received positive review from the Wall Street Journal)
-A Street Car Named Desire - Composed music for The Steppenwolf Theaters production (1997) (received positive reviews relating to the music)
-Mozart's' Don Giovanni and Marriage of Figaro - instrumental orchestral arrangement for Fanfare/Intersound Records' Enhanced CD release - release date May 1996
Professional Activities:
Music Director/Founder/Guitarist/Arts Manager
Arts Management Consultant/Instructor - Developed and implemented a web-based marketing instructional platform for the Sebelius Academy in Helsinki Finland (2207)
Musical Director for The Lt. Dan Band with co-founder actor /musician Gary Sinise (ltdanband.com) (currently)
Arts Management Consultant (panelist) - State of Illinois Arts Council (2000)
Arts Management Consultant (adjudicator) - State of Michigan's Arts Council, (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003, 2005)
Conducted on-site evaluations of musical arts organizations and provided detailed assessment reports on submitted grant proposals. Organizations include:
-The Detroit Symphony
-The Grand Rapids Symphony
-University Music Society
City of Chicago Commission to Establish a Vietnam War memorial: Designed the Logo with Artists Gary Tinnery and suggested the phrase"Chicago Remembers" which was eventually inscribed.(2005)
Awards/Honors
Fulbright Specialist, Selected - Develop international program on American Jazz History and improvisation and it relations to Cultural Identity - (2007-2012)
Chicago Magazine, Recipient - Chicagoan of The Year (2006)
NEA Continental Harmony Project, Winner - Commission A Symphony of Place (2001)
Columbia College Chicago, Winner - Faculty Development Award (2001)
Detroit Symphony, Finalist - African American Composers Competition - Buffalo Soldiers (2000)
Lancaster Symphony Composers Award, 38th Recipient - for contributions to American Music, (1999)
Illinois Arts Council, Composer Fellowship Award, Recipient (1999)
Dictionary of Black Composers - One of 200 composers selected for inclusion (1999)
Columbia College Chicago, Winner - Faculty Development Award (1998)
African American Academy of Arts and Letters, Induction (1996)
Columbia College Chicago, Finalist - Teacher of the Year (1996)
Detroit Symphony, Finalist Black Composers Competition - Symphony For The Sons of Nam (1991)
Savannah Symphony, Winner - Black Composers Competition - Symphony For The Sons of Nam (1991)
League of Black Women The Black Rose Award, Recipient - for service to the community (1989)
Fort Sheridan Photography Contest Winner - Won first and second prize (1983)
Membership
United States Service Organization (USO) - Board member
National Association Record Industry Professionals (NARIP)
Project Management Institute (current)
The Chicago Chapter of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences - Past Governor /Vice President and current member.
National Music Publishers Association, (NMPA) - One Omik Music Publisher member
Broadcast Music Incorporated BMI, - Writer/Publisher member
Chicago Youth Symphony - Past board member
National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum -Past board member
National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) - Past member
International Association of Jazz Educators - Past member
Military History:
Bandmaster Commander - United States Army Reserve Warrant Officer and Commander of the 85th Division Reserve Band at Fort Sheridan IL (1989 -1994)
Captain - US Army Administration Corps (1980-1989)
Marketing Officer - For the Chicago Recruiting District of the US Army Recruiting initiatives:
Responsibilities included developing marketing strategies, evaluating advertising efforts and recommending alternative advertising to include media buys for specific markets (1983-1986)
US Army Bandsman - Performed on guitar, electric bass and percussion as a musician for the US Army (1978-1980)
Viet Nam Veteran - Combat Engineer (1970-1971)
Received Vietnam Cross of Gallantry awarded by the Vietnam Government and a US Army medal for work as a music performer for troops stationed in remote fighting locations
curricula
vitae
02/15/2010
No new items this week
Working on music for Concert Tour in June with Kimotion Vs2
Searching for a Venue for the Lt. Dan Band USVAP Fundraiser on May 7th
Composing a new score for the Hue Concert that will feature Carol on Flute with the Dang Bau
Head Shot
photography
music / music videos
Film / Video
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when I was a little younger
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