Jamire Williams is a multidisciplinary artist who functions in the medium of music performance, performance art, composition, and still-life sculpture. His practice focuses on faith, spirituality, roots, and the evidence of those things which are not seen. Williams has collaborated with several artists, 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, 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. 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. Williams was a prominent performer at the Whitney Museum of American Art for Jason Moran’s exhibition program, Jazz on a High Floor in the Afternoon (2019), and has since presented and installed works at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Brookfield Place (New York). 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 (2021).
Williams 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, also where Jamire was born, raised, and currently resides. Since relocating to Houston in 2021, Williams has been an artist-in-residence at Lawndale Art & Performance Center (Houston) as a member of their 2021–22 Artist Studio Program and was recently granted artist-in-residence for the 2023 Ballroom Sessions—The Farther Place at Ballroom Marfa.