Search - William Woods :: Hear & Now

Dr. William Woods enters The Hear and Now with edgy and elegant new work Award-winning pianist William Woods proves that smooth jazz doesn't always mean snooze jazz. Woods, a hip cross between Boney James and Bob James, infuses his arrangements with profound originality and plenty of pleasant surprises. "I'm always working to put a fresh twist on it," says Woods. Woods himself puts a fresh twist on what it means to be a musician. By day, the New Jersey native is a radiation oncologist. "My everyday dealings with patients have a profound impact on my music," he explained. "My day job un-clutters my mind. My music is never in a rut. When I come to it at night, I am fresh." But for Woods the jazz profession is no mere dalliance or silly indulgence. He comes from a musical family, attended Juilliard before Princeton and medical school, and has found an uncanny balance between the rigors of his doctoring and the left-brain process of jazz composition. So far, the two pursuits have co-existed beautifully. Woods' second CD, Cobalt Blue, was released to critical acclaim and picked up a Smoothie Award along the way. In addition, the first track lifted for radio play, `Blue Me Down', was included by WJZW DJ Al Santos in his 2004 Top 50 Year End Countdown. His third release, the Top 40's Every Part Of Me' his first on the Whaling City Sound label received rave reviews including JazzTimes, spent four months on the smooth jazz charts and was featured on the Music Choice cable network. Now, Woods rolls out the fabulous The Hear and Now, his fourth and best recording. Featuring Denny Jiosa on guitar, Jeffrey Scott Wills on saxophone, Chris Kent on electric bass, Alana Rocklin on acoustic bass, Derico Watson on drums and Glen Caruba on percussion, Woods' material combines the beauty and grace of smooth jazz with uncharacteristic passion and energy. "The musicians picked up on the energy in the studio and took it to a whole different level," says Woods, who is adept at getting that energy down on tape. "Once I put it down in the studio, I don't feel compelled to touch it again," he says. "For me, redoing it takes the pleasure out of it." On tunes like the super-funky "Not Suitable for Children," the elegant "Sweet Surrender," and the bluesy "Getting' Dirty," Woods proves he's not interested in playing the same old smooth jazz. His soulful melodicism and bold sense of adventure separates him from many of his more conservative contemporaries. "I try to get away from the safe," he says. "People don't remember safe. People remember innovations and people remember the profound. My ultimate goal is to be profound, to create a body of work that will outlive me." Mission nearly accomplished. Woods' medical work inspired him to donate half of the proceeds of his last CD to the American Cancer Society. Half of the profits of The Hear and Now will go to Habitat for Humanity.