Ben Williams Releases Vocal Debut with “I Am A Man”

Jazz bassist Ben Williams has stepped out front on his new “sociopolitically charged” album I Am A Man. Though it’s his third solo album, it’s his debut as both bassist and vocalist.

Williams sings on most songs while laying down the low end on both electric and acoustic bass. The album’s title references a historic sanitation workers’ strike in Memphis during 1968 that saw African American men marching in the streets with picket signs reading “I Am A Man.”

“The image of this long line of men, holding the picket signs, all saying the same thing – there’s something powerful about seeing this message over and over again,” Williams explains.

Williams is known for his jazz work, but I Am A Man dives deeper into the sound of neo-soul with “hip hop grooves and cinematic synths to afrobeat-tinged R&B and haunting soul.” Get a taste of that on the track “If You Hear Me”:

I Am A Man is available now on CD, vinyl and as a digital download (iTunes and Amazon MP3).

I Am A Man Track List:

1. Intro: “I Am A Man”
2. If You Hear Me
3. March On (feat. Wes Felton)
4. Promised Land (feat. Kendra Foster)
5. High Road (feat. Muhsinah)
6. Take It From Me (feat. Niles)
7. Come Home (feat. Kendra Foster)
8. The Death of Emmett Till
9. High Road pt. 2
10. We Shall Overcome