Sherry Williams

The buttery voice of Sherry Williams is an oasis in any madness our world offers. When you listen to her you realize immediately that she is a consummate artist - the real thing. Williams is what they called in the old days, a storyteller - she paints pictures with words. Yet she bridges the gap between the past and the present. Her masterful interpretation of the lyrics makes an over worn song meaningful, or brings an unknown song to life. Her passion for well-crafted music and her superb vocal ability place her in a category to which few artists have arrived. Though she emerges from the shadows of the great ladies that have gone on before her, her style is unmistakably her own. 

Since she began singing as a professional, Sherry has had the good fortune to rarely be out of work. When she was a high school student in San Bernardino (California), she sang and toured with The Young Americans. At ULCA, she joined the acapella choir and worked with the famous Roger Wagner and the UCLA Choir both in Los Angeles and Europe. She has also toured with Debbie Reynolds, Andy Gibb, and the legendary Johnnie Ray, to name a few. In 1976, Sherry left the Eddie Kendricks tour and struck out on her own, touring Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok. 

Since returning to the United States after her last Asian tour in 1980, Sherry has acted in films and on television. She has worked extensively in and around the Los Angeles and Denver areas in important jazz venues, nightclubs and festivals, and has recorded three solo CDs, two ensemble CDs, a duo CD with John Rodby and a remarkable Christmas CD.  

In 1997, she released her first CD, “The Way You Love Me”, to rave reviews. Her second release, “A Taste of Sherry”, was on the 2003 Grammy ballot and one of the songs was used in the soundtrack of the film THE CORE. After that came “You Must Believe In Spring”, again to rave reviews. During 2010-2013, Sherry toured Germany and Italy with pianist Markus Burger and trumpeter Jim Linahon, joining forces with Italian bassist Beppe Pilotto and drummer Peter Paul Hofmann.  Their quintet was the last group to perform at the famed “Birdland” jazz club in Hamburg before it closed its doors. Those tours yielded one acclaimed ensemble CD, and one big band CD, recorded with the Café Nerly Big Band in Erfurt, Germany. Sherry’s duo CD called “Just Us Two” with pianist John Rodby was released in 2019, then her Christmas CD entitled “A Very Sherry Christmas” in 2021.  They are all available on iTunes, Spotify and CDbaby.com. 

In 2022, Sherry returned to Europe twice.  Once with pianist Markus Burger singing in clubs and concert halls in Italy and Germany, including a very successful return engagement at the recently re-opened Birdland, Hamburg.  While in Berlin, they performed at the jazz venues Zig-Zag Club and Badenscher Hof Musikcafe.  In October, Sherry returned to Budapest, Hungary to perform at St. Stephen’s Basilica with the Modern Art Orchestra conducted by Kornél Fekete Kovacs.  She and other guest artists (Brian Charette, Horti Lilla, Ávéd János, Virágh András Gábor) performed a “jazz enhanced” version of Franz Liszt’s “Via Crucis” for the Liszt Festival.

Curating the Jazz at The Merc series in Temecula California, has been Sherry’s pet project since 2006.  A true “listening room”, it is the only performance space in the area that hosts straight ahead jazz every week, and has become a favorite venue amongst world-class jazz musicians from all over the globe.  Currently Sherry divides her time between running the jazz series,

performing at clubs and festivals around the US and Europe and doing arts related charity work.  She sits on the board of the Temecula Theater Foundation which among other endeavors, brings music and theater arts to children in the Temecula area through its Arts Connection program.

Sherry has worked with a multitude of jazz greats... Buddy Collette, Herbie Mann, Plas Johnson, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Ann Patterson, Gerald “Wig” Wiggins, Al Viola, Herman Riley, Dave Pike, Eddie Cano, Lanny Morgan, Ross Tompkins, Earl Palmer, Bill Cunliffe, Andy Simpkins, Roy McCurdy, John and Jennifer Leitham, Ray Pizzi, Jim DeJulio, Paul Smith, Art Hillery, Terry Harrington, John Hammond, Roger Kellaway, Dave Benoit, Doug MacDonald, Llew Matthews, John B. Williams, Tom Ranier, Patrice Rushen, Ralph Penland, Bob Magnusson, Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, Joe LaBarbera, Jon Mayer, Putter Smith, Markus Burger, Jan von Klewitz, Hubert Laws, Kornél Fekete Kovach, The Modern Art Orchestra & many more. 

Sherry Williams 
sherrywilliamsmusic@verizon.net