I first met Will Connell in the basement of the Westbeth Houses as we were going to the same rehearsal. Before he knew my name he started dropping spiritual science on me. He used to come by my bar at Sam Ash where I sold reeds instead of drinks. He came through frequently and every time he did he would impart wisdom and tell me a story that would attach itself to my soul DNA.
If you know me in person then you have probably heard me re-tell Will’s story about Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Will walked into a community center in the 70’s and lined up across the stage were several tenor players all going for it at full bore. Rahsaan walked in and stood next to the stage listening and got out his tenor. He walked over to the first tenor player and then took what he was doing, but improved it, fully actualized it, and evolved it. He moved on to the next player and did the same thing. Then the third player, and then the fourth. Finally he combined what all of them were doing into one massive statement all while still being himself.
There were more of course. The one that stands tall was that one day during his Horace Tapscott days Will was getting deep into astrology as a science. He had a big Astrology book opened up when Horace walked into the room. Horace said nothing verbally but gave Will a look, and then slammed the book closed and left the room.
Will and I talked about astrology also but to a point when he cut me off. After years of study he had concluded that the Western system was false. He brought me copies from a book that proved his case. I was struggling to let the Western system go (I still am) The last time we talked about it he laughed and said “Are you still holding on to that tired thing?” He said it with a smile that said one day, you’ll get it.
When Will came by the Ash we always talked about Giuseppi Logan and Will would help me trouble-shoot. He was adamant about 2 things, that G always had the wrong mouthpiece, and that we could get him support from a VH1 music program. (I did try that and getting G grants but nothing worked). As usual, Will was more about helping others than telling me about his own music.
One more Will story, he said he was in the room in a community center in the 70’s when and where he said Kwanzaa was invented!
Will started calling me to play flugelhorn and was very clear why-I sounded like I was playing french horn, which he loved. My favorite piece was and is Mountain Song, and with his sanction I brought it to my 12 Houses Orchestra.
What happened in this chapter of my Substack is that I reached out to folks that went especially deep with Will and asked them to write anything from a word to whatever they feel. What happened next brings the light out. Will had deep impact on many people, the kind of impact that you take with you when you leave.
First things first, before going any further I would ask readers to watch the following Straw2Gold Video tribute by Robert O’Haire. Here you can hear Will both in sound and words. Next I would scope a great piece about Will's history by John Pietaro. Vocalist and writer Nora McCarthy wrote a wonderful piece on Will that is essential reading. This article was from Eric Nemeyer’s magazine Jazz Inside. As she wrote from the heart, Nora spoke of Will’s selfless dedication and commitment to humanity, and to his belief in social and conscious evolution through music and the arts. Here is Nora’s musical tribute to Will after his sudden transition.
I also asked alto saxophone master and composer Jorge Sylvester for a remembrance of Will:
“Will was like a brother to me. We spoke about a lot of musical topics. I remember one time I saw him at the 2nd Avenue F train entrance, and he spoke to me about performing at his upcoming residency at the Stone. I was so happy for him, and he said to me, ‘Man, I have been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.’ So, I said, talking about that, I had applied for a Guggenheim Fellowship, and did not get it. And, Will said, ‘I know the deal, it’s all about the flavor of the month.’ It was that kind of comradery and understanding that I loved about him the most – like a brother would understand and say something to both make you feel better and laugh. He was a mentor to all of us – he was Will."
As soon I was think of Will, my thoughts always include the great French Horn player Vincent Chancey. (We horn players bond in special ways). Vincent played with Will in a band Will called Sadhana starting in 2009, a group that lasted 14 years. As Vincent explains here, Sadhana is a sanskrit word meaning walking the path to enlightenment. In the intro here Vincent elucidates on Will’s skill as a copyist and how in his words, everything about him was organized. Here they are playing together with Fay Victor and Ken Filiano. On Will, Vincent wrote:
“I will say that knowing Will was knowing one of the most honest, caring and genius people I have ever met. He was also driven by his love of music, both as a player and a copyist. I will always remember him.”
Saxophonist and composer Ras Moshe Burnett on Will:
"Will Connell. I met him in the very early 80's and we were friends since then. He was very encouraging and kept the positive spirits up. May he be at peace on his next cycle."
Ras is in the picture with Will below. One day I was talking to Will and he told me he had a concert coming up. Who’s on drums? I asked. With a big smile he said Jeremy Carlstedt. He then made eye contact with a serious expression and said “Maaaan…Jeremy is really something”, conveying to me it was important to hear what he was saying. This was the first time I heard Jeremy’s name and said to myself he must be a bad cat for Will to react like that. Now in 2024 Jeremy is the drummer and my co-spontaneous orchestration and arranging partner in my 12 Houses Orchestra. Here’s Jeremy reflecting on Will..
Will Connell Jr.
There is no way to minimize the positive effect that Will Connell Jr. had on my life.
For several years, I was the drummer in his group Sadhana, which featured Will, Vincent Chancey, Max Johnson and myself. We also spent a lot of time off the bandstand talking about music, the scene, as well as just regular things that folks talk about. Our common thread, before we even made music, was that we both worked in Chico Hamilton’s group (or orchestra, as Chico would want it to be referred to). He always would comment that he enjoyed that Chico had decided to mentor and guide me. To know Will was a unique honor, because I have not met many (or maybe any) people that were as selfless than Will. Every gig would end with him telling me he could have done better on the bandstand, but there is clear documentation of him completely destroying the entire band, in the most loving way, at the University of the Streets. During one of his solos that night, he gave this, at the time, young drummer, a moment to question his own energy. He did not acknowledge what a heavyweight he was on the horn-and I can hear him saying that he didn’t, but he kicked my butt that night, and on many others.
There are so many moments I shared with Will that showed what kind of person he was, but there are a few that really stand out to me. For instance, he had a friend who was supposed to go to the Jazz Standard with him that had to cancel, so he asked me to go. The tickets were already purchased, and I accepted the invitation. When we got there, he insisted that dinner and drinks were on him. I protested, and he said that he was cool and gave me no option other than to let him pick up the tab.
Another moment that stands out to me was when Will came to Minton’s to hear Vincent Chancey, Tyler Mitchell and myself. This was an afternoon gig, and there was nobody there, other than a couple people on the staff. Will showed up wearing a suit and ordered food while seated right in front of the band. His presence, because of the energy he brought when he walked into the room, made us feel like we had an audience we could play for. Will and my daughter share a birthday, which is very special to our family. When my oldest has a birthday, we always think of Will. My wife fondly remembers how he came to visit us on Thanksgiving when I found out he was just going to stay home that day. He brought wine, enjoyed a meal with us, and commented on how “cute” our kitten was. He was just a pleasure to be around, and always made you feel supported.
Back to the music/even though all these aforementioned qualities made him the musical entity he was/is: You could find him some nights working on charts at the 7A bar in the East Village, with a glass of wine directly next to the staff paper. His manuscript was as close to software as you can get, and I always regret not getting the chance to study this technique with him. Compositionally, his pieces were original, exciting and always had stories behind the notes. There was meaning in everything he did, and he was definitely the kindest badass I was fortunate enough to ever know.
I reached out to the great violinist and composer Jason Kao Hwang. I first heard about him from Will also before I heard Jason, and Will was proud of their history, captured here in the quartet Commitment, with great liner notes by Tim Niland. Jason wrote me the following words:
“In 1976 I met Will at a jam session when I was 19, and we performed in our quartet Commitment until 1983. He was a wonderful friend and mentor. Will has one of the most unique alto saxophone sounds in the history of jazz. His timbre, rhythm and soaring spirit is inimitable. Having worked professionally as both arranger and copyist, his craft was deep and compositions, inspirational. Will believed that one’s heart and mind can unify in music not only for the benefit of personal evolution, but more importantly, to serve others. Will strived to live life true to his ideals, without concern for commercial validation. For the many many people who received his creativity and kindness, the memory of Will Connell, Jr. shall always be a great, great blessing.”
Guitarist and composer Anders Nilsson, master cellist Tomas Ulrich and Will had a trio captured here at the mighty Brecht by Susan Yung. I asked Anders for his feelings on Will:
East Village, early 2000's:
“The first few common friends we had told me "that's Will Connell, he was the copyist for Ornette’s Skies of America". Later on I saw that score at one of his friend's house in Connecticut. His penmanship is articulate, lucid, thorough and inviting to read. Characteristics and cares I strive to uphold myself. A musician/friend also told me he's "really low profile" meaning cool, real, and doesn't have much need for egotism. He welcomed me to play with him and we hung out a bit over the course of a few years, circa 2009-2013. I appreciated his attentiveness, artistry, sensitivity, humbleness and sense of humor. We shared laughs over ridiculous euphemisms in use at the time such as enhanced interrogation techniques and administrative segregation. One evening we got into racism and I was asking him questions about his experiences. In the 50's LA neighborhood he grew up in his family was the only black one. He didn't recall any trouble with other kids but many young male friends of color were at some point or other arrested by the LAPD. He told me there was one day when a (white) cop said to him "how did we miss you?"
About Ornette: In 1958 Will was in attendance at the live recordings at the Hillcrest Club with Don Cherry, Paul Bley, Charlie Haden, and Billy Higgins saying they must've added the applause afterwards because very few were there.
My playing experiences with Will: When Will got a gig and took the role of band leader a handful of times he always took care of the band which was a trio called "Exit strategy" with Will on bass clarinet, alto sax, flute, myself on guitar, and Tomas Ulrich on cello. The trio was more of a collective with everyone contributing tunes, originals and I recall he brought in "Four" by Miles Davis.
I sometimes think of his cool approaching strut and smiling "Hey man!..."
Pianist and composer Chris Forbes spent some time with Will, and hired us both once. Chris on Will:
I met Will in 2004 on the first gig I had with Steve Swell’s Nation of We at the Bowery Poetry Club. We both got into a conversation with Steve Dalachinsky about opera and our mutual love of Wozzeck. I found him very learned and soulful, he felt music deeply. He was one of my absolute favorite people in the free jazz community. He was gentle, warmhearted and a very deep listener. If he came to your gig you knew someone in the audience was going to get what you were doing. Will and I talked about doing something together and, unlike so many unrealized projects, we got to. I put together a quintet at University of the Streets which featured Matt Lavelle and Will on horns. I always wished we’d done more than just one gig. But I did manage to record it and it survived the great computer failure of mine. We also did a quartet gig of Will’s also at UOTS with Max Johnson and Warren Smith. Will’s tunes for that were wonderful and we did a version of Bud Powell’s Un Poco Loco that I really loved. It’s been nearly 11 years since Will passed and I still see him everywhere I go in the East Village. Along with Roy and Steve Dalachinsky these guys are what being a New York downtown musician means to me.
Thanks Chris. I still remember the first time I heard Will. It wasn’t in person. I was playing with the great trombone player and composer Steve Swell and working at Tower Records in the early 2000’s. A CIMP album came across my desk called Atmospheels. I was immediately struck by the playing on the opening track Labor’s Daze and asked Steve who was that on alto?! As I heard then and heard every time I heard Will since, he was always going for it. Sabir Mateen, Ras Moshe and I always talk about Will and a New Years Eve concert at the Brecht Forum where Will was playing with Sabir and Roy Campbell Jr, and Will was on fire. Will considered Sabir and Roy to be the top level. On Will, Sabir told me recently that people slept on a total original. I asked Steve Swell for his feelings on Will which lead to a truly incredible story.
Here’s Steve..
I first met Will Connell in the mid 1980s on Walter Thompson’s band which was an improvising ensemble of about 12 musicians or so. I was impressed right away with Will’s playing; the way he found his way into what I call the “cracks” of the sounds of his instrument. My favorite alto players to play with all have that; Jemeel Moondoc, Rob Brown; and it has always inspired me to search my own playing and get into in those “crevices of sound” and try to find what is beyond them for myself. Will’s gregarious nature and positivity, especially being so complimentary of other musicians (myself included) was another reason we became friends from that time until he passed. We played together in many situations through the years and I had Will on a number of my own projects during our friendship and always loved what he brought to the music. WC was also a true intellectual and erudite observer of the art scene in NY. He read The NY Times everyday “cover to cover” as he said. It’s a crime his sound and inventiveness isn’t more broadly known. For every “recognized genius” in our music it’s important to remember someone like Will Connell who strived and worked and played in near obscurity his whole life and never gave up. He always said to me after gigs that he had to go home and practice because he had learned something new that evening. I remember a number of times sitting on the 14th Street bus looking out the window and seeing Will bicycling up 1st Avenue. I still look out that window from time to time, thinking I might get a glimpse of him one more time.
My favorite memory of Will was when we were members of Cecil Taylor’s Sound Vision Orchestra. The band was invited to the Skopje Jazz Festival in Skopje, Macedonia in November of 2002. We arrived in Skopje after they had just held a very contentious election, where some factions in the country were threatening a military attack on the city if some of their own leaders were not elected. Fortunately they did win a few seats just prior to our arrival and there was no longer any threat of violence. As part of our stay we were invited to the US Embassy in Skopje for a reception held in honor of the band. At the reception the dignitaries, Americans and Macedonians gave a few scheduled speeches about the band and the arts and also about the political crisis the country had just been through. Will and I were standing together in the crowd listening to everyone. It was all very choreographed and pleasant. But when one of the speakers ended, Will, much to my surprise, started to speak to the crowd of 50 or so people. He wasn’t a scheduled speaker so this surprised everyone in the room. As he began, I noticed the vibe change and people started moving away from where we were standing not sure what Will was going to say. I was too frozen myself to move. Amazingly no gendarmes were called in and people listened as Will give a short, very strong, positive, improvised speech. He was responding to what the scheduled speakers were saying having just gone through that threat of violence. He spoke very wisely as a person who had seen his fair share of what humans can do to each other. His final words were something to the effect: “We who know better must be patient as the majority of the human race is still in a protracted state of adolescence and we will all eventually grow out of this phase.” His words were just beautiful and people applauded. He then turned to me as they were clapping and said he’d better get a taxi now and go back to the hotel “in case I keep talking and saying something I’ll regret.” At the performance the next evening, the US Ambassador came backstage to thank Will for his comments. When we got home Will received a letter from the Ambassador thanking him in writing for his wise words. Will Connell was a true special spirit.
That’s the top of the mountain on this chapter.
Some recordings with Will: Will was on a record with the Kalaparush McIntyre Quartet called Extreme. The link here, Groove Time, showing more of Will’s swing side. He was with Alan Silva and the Sound Vision Orchestra. He’s on a record with Steve Swell’s Nations of We. He was with the Dux Orchestra, and also The Walter Thompson Big Band. As memory serves me correctly Will subbed with one of the late night TV talk shows bands once for a few days! (he was quite amused by that)
Here’s Will at Niagra where he was booking a series there playing his song Silverback. Here’s Will with Cecil Taylor! (There are several videos of this CT orchestra) Check Will out with Orchestra Dave. He solos on bass clarinet, alto, and flute. I was on this one and it’s a wild, joyous, sanctified multi-generational ride. Here’s Will with The 3 Flats (Daniel Carter and Dave Sewelson) There’s some nice bass clarinet here. Will spends as much time listening as he does playing. Strong alto from Will here with Michael Wimberly (nice to see Roy Campbell as MC). Finally after Roy passed we gathered and I crossed paths with Will again here.
Will signed off on emails (his was silverbackny) saying Peas and Lub. One of his last emails was to a group he had assembled for a concert and in giant letters he wrote: “CATS! THERE ARE NO WORDS. THANKS FOR MAKING A WAY OUT OF NO WAY.”
We were all shook by Will’s sudden and unexpected leaving the planet. Even the greatest masters of astrology can’t conquer the understanding of death. Will had a residency at the Stone coming up. Death is no angel, but Will Connell may have been one. There was a massive memorial for him. The video on YT is down but pictures from Scott Friedlander are intact. The culmination was a huge conduction led by Steve Swell with a cast on one of his arms!
Will’s words from the video tribute from Robert O’Haire at the earlier part of this episode stay with me. Words that we can hold onto and use as we persevere in the grind to be.
When we are what we can be
When we are what we CAN be
For Will Connell, we have to keep on moving forward and try to become just that..
For Will and Safiya
In the coming weeks, Jemeel Moondoc, Ramsey Ameen, Joe Rigby, and to close Raphe Malik
Cover and photo below by cellist and photographer Gil Selinger