Swing Town

Ben Williams has extensive performing and teaching experience as a freelance artist and educator in the New York area. A co- recipient of a Jazz Fellowship Grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, Ben has led and co-led numerous groups under his own name performing in many venues in the NYC area and across the country. As a sideman he has performed and recorded with artists as diverse as Oliver Lake, Southside Johnny, Keely Smith, Johnny Mathis and Clarence Clemons. Ben has recorded for Concord Records as well as many independent labels, and has done much soundtrack work for TV and movies. He also has appeared in front of the camera as well; his appearances have included Late Night with Conan O’Brien and the movie Little Manhattan. Hot House magazine says of Ben, " Jimmy Knepper, Williams is a distinctive and resourceful trombonist. He’s not afraid to let the horn sound like itself”.

​As an educator, Ben was music director for “Music For Kids,” a hands-on program designed for children and adults that demonstrated the many facets of music-making, based in Maplewood, NJ. He was co founder of “The Jazz Explorers,” a traveling program that uses music to demonstrate and incorporate improvisation in our everyday lives, based in the New York City area Ben has conducted clinics throughout the country on trombone performance and improvisation.  Ben is also a Visiting Artist at the Tyson School of Performing Arts in East Orange, NJ. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Ben is an adjunct faculty member at Newark Academy in Livingston, NJ and Stevens Co-op in Hoboken NJ. Ben has been Music Director for Swing Town, Maplewood Community Music’s big band, since 2009. He runs a private music studio in Maplewood NJ, where he resides with with his wife Susan.