John C. Williams (baritone saxophonist)

John C. Williams (8 February, 1941 – 13 May, 2025) was best known as a baritone saxophonist, though he played many other instruments, including bass saxophone and recorder. He was also a jazz composer, arranger, music educator and co-founder/ organiser of the Music at Leasowes Bank festival. Early life Born in North Kensington, London, on 8 February 1941, Williams was the oldest of three siblings. He attended the local Oxford Gardens Primary School where he first learnt the recorder, and at age 10 performed his first radio broadcast as part of the Oxford Gardens Recorder Consort on the BBC’s Children’s Hour. By the age of 14, he would be performing live at weddings. He gained a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith, London. Music career Aged 21, he founded the sixteen-strong John Williams Big Band, which in 1962 became the resident group at London’s Marquee Club, replacing John Dankworth’s group. Playing what was described as ‘boisterous big band jazz’, it was voted by Jazz News as one the top ten UK jazz bands of that year. The Band played the Richmond Jazz Festival in August 1963. In the mid-1960s, he worked in Cardiff, as musical director for Harlech Television. He