DJ Williams was born in Plainfield, NJ and grew up in Richmond, VA and started to hit the music scene at 16 years old. A ground breaking instrumentalist and self-taught guitarist has established a unique sound in acoustic & electric guitar. Donald Jeffrey Ilory Williams, Jr. started to play the piano at just 4 years old and along the way picked up the guitar, the bass, drums, and clarinet and became quite proficient at all of them. Now DJ is amazing crowds everywhere with his guitar wizardry looped with grooving bass lines and a rhythmic sound. “I look at the music as the soundtrack of my life as I strive to improve and love what I do.”

During a solo live show DJ uses an acoustic electric, an electric, and a bass guitar run into a loop machine (Line 6 Delay Module) to form his sound along with some interesting effects. The percussive sounds are made with the body of the acoustic and muted strings. When all these elements come together it forms a unique blend of jazz and funk with styles of reggae, latin, and hip hop grooves thrown into the mix forming the illusion of an entire band on stage. He grew up listening to all styles of music so everything that grabbed his soul comes out in his music. DJ’s mother and father are from West Africa so he was exposed to a lot of rhythmic music which is the basis for everything he plays. “The rhythm is always first then everything else usually falls into place.” When DJ was in high school his main focus on music was based entirely on rock and hip hop. He always really liked jazz, funk, and Motown when he heard it around the house but wasn’t really turned on to it until his first year in college when he was studying the recording industry. “Besides an occasional lesson or a tip given by a fellow musician I am a virtually self taught guitarist which I think is good to developing an original sound.”

The last several years have been very productive for DJ Williams as he got the chance to play up and down the east coast, sharing the stage with Keller Williams,Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, Lake Trout, Karl Denson's Tiny Universe, playing the Moon Music Showcase in New York, just to name a few. He has completed two solo albums, “Time In A Teapot” (2002) and “More On The Inside” (2003) as well as collaborations with other musicians on albums for local bands. Currently, DJ has just finished a new album with a trio called the DJ Williams Projekt. The new album is not a loop album but a studio record with a drummer and saxophone player which will be out in the end of April 2004. Richmond is still his main headquarters where he has developed a very strong following here and the surrounding cities. “I just hope to keep expanding and sharing what I believe is a new kind of sound that is progressive and always full of surprises.”The Press“One of Richmond’s hidden treasures…” -Richmond Music Press- “A must see one man band with the quickest hands I‘ve ever seen…” -Punchline Magazine-