Marcus D Williams performs a variety of standards, covers, and originals on a regular basis at clubs, fine restaurants, festivals, art galleries, concert venues, and intimate house concert settings.
His music is an eclectic mix that borrows much from the cool jazz, pop, Latin, bossa nova, rock, and R&B traditions. He performs regularly with his band, Blue Note Society. As a soloist, he performs primarily on guitar playing instrumental selections in chord/melody style with an occasional vocal selection. Although guitar is his primary instrument, he also has performed on electric bass, saxophone, piano, and keyboards.
As a bassist, he has played jazz, rhythm and blues, and popular music with a number of musical luminaries including Quincy Jones, Duke Ellington, Bobby Hebb, Grady Tate, and Billy Taylor as a member of a jazz orchestra. Over the years he has performed on a number of television and radio programs with a variety of different musicians and vocalists and has produced radio commercials and music soundtracks for documentary videos. He also has been responsible for original compositions and arrangements for his various projects. He's played electric bass for the Moonlighters blues band. He has several commercially released CDs that can be heard on selected radio stations in Washington, D.C., New York City, Montreal, and as far away as Macedonia, and Uzbekistan.
He has performed for international audiences in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Dublin, Toronto, Quebec, Tokyo, China, Saigon, Taipei, Bangkok, Jamaica, Cayman Islands, Barbados, and Montseratt. He has performed as a soloist, and as a member of various duos, trios, and groups in a wide variety of venues in the Washington, DC area, and in international venues. They include performances at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (Washington, DC), Barns at Wolftrap, Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac, Capitol Hill, Washington Harbor's Gaylord Hotel, the Willard Hotel (Washington, D.C.), the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center (Washington, DC), Washington Convention Center, D.C.'s Fete de la Musique, Willow Restaurant (Arlington, VA), The Ruby Room (Tokyo, Japan), Sappho Live (Taipei, Taiwan), The Waterhole (Amsterdam, Netherlands), Club Candela (Amsterdam), The Vibe (London, UK), The Hideaway (London, UK), Le Flair (Paris, France), La Fenetre Soleil (Saigon, Vietnam), The Lounge (Yongshuo, China), The Globe (Dublin, Ireland), Coyote Grille and Cantina, Amerigo Restaurant (McLean, VA), El Tio Tex-Mex Grill (Falls Church, VA), Ocean M Restaurant (McLean, VA), Market Salamander (Middleburg, VA), Bangkok Blues Club, the Ft. Ward Park Amphitheater, the Courtyard Concert Cafe, the Bahamas Embassy for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, the Organization of American States (Washington, DC), the Fairfax Fair, Borders, Barnes and Noble, as well as numerous corporate and private receptions, concert venues, restaurants, festivals, and art galleries.
His professional memberships include the American Federation of Musicians, Washington Area Music Association (WAMA), The Recording Academy (Grammys), Songwriters Association of Washington (SAW), and Amsterdam Songwriters Guild.
