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"Williams has found her voice as both composer and player. For this, her third CD (Scenes And Dreams), the London-based pianist has chosen again to trust her own judgment as far as the material is concerned and produced the best album of her career so date. I’ve played it a lot and can commend it for its range and thoughtful quality. There are Monkian moments and more than a hint of Bill Evans’s gliding momentum but mostly what you hear is from Williams herself. She’s a serious player, and I mean that as a compliment, her musings complemented by the polished support of Brown and Mailliot who both know when to put their collective foot down or back off. 'For her third album, Dankworth-award-winning pianist Kate Williams has recorded eight originals and a couple of jazz classics (Ellington/Strayhorn’s ‘Day Dream’ and ‘Monk’s Dream’) with an alert, responsive rhythm section: bassist Jeremy Brown and drummer Tristan Mailliot. Although loosely themed around both its overall and individual titles (‘The Scenic Route’ an appropriately meandering theme, ‘Water’s Edge’ containing suitably ‘lapping’ piano sounds, etc.) the album is a richly varied programme. Williams is an unshowy, subtle player, relying on displacements of rhythmic emphasis rather than dazzling runs to make her musical points, but her soloing is none the less cogent and powerful for that, and her themes, ranging from the overtly lyrical to the tastefully percussive, are immediately memorable, intensely melodic yet complex enough to provide absorbing bases for lively trio interaction. Admirably unfussy, impeccably performed, this is a fine trio album from a pianist/composer who should be better known.' "... you could have heard the proverbial pin drop while Williams spun solos packed with dynamic and textural nuance from her melodic, gently lyrical original material, interspersing it with intriguing visits to modern jazz classics by the likes of Thelonious Monk. A small triumph, not only for Williams and her hair-trigger-accurate rhythm section (lithe bassist Jeremy Brown and brisk drummer Tristan Mailliot), but also for the aforementioned Vortex Steinway, which positively sang under her fingers." "When I heard her first album I was enormously impressed. My reaction was confirmed by the arrival of a new cd recorded this year....a superbly lucid and inventive pianist and composer". "This is a fine set from pianist Kate Williams, featuring a set of predominantly original material. The title cut 'Looking out' is a thought provoking ballad with it's plaintive opening theme stated by Siegel's tenor giving way to a piano solo that enables the piece to burst into a quiet array of colour, showing delicacy of touch as befits one of the pianist's mentors, Bill Evans. "...the combination of stylish playing and the quirkily imaginative compositional skills demonstrated by Williams make this (Looking Out) a stimulating and likeable release." "A worthy addition to the ranks of British jazz composer-pianists, Kate Williams has the knack of making a simple trio or quartet sound much bigger. She does this not by creating sound and fury, but through a wonderful ever-changing variety of harmony and texture." "On 'Sycamore Song', pianist Kate Williams writes robustly and fashions clean, cool improvised lines of cerebral discernment, evoking Tristano and Jarrett.... "Kate Williams has produced a persuasive set of performances that are a major step on the way to a truly distinctive style and definitely a cut above the crop."
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