User:Natalie Williams

Natalie Williams

Natalie Williams is an exceptional singer/songwriter whose style is a unique blend of R&B, vocal jazz and soul. Natalie is a phenomenal talent who has received fantastic critical acclaim from the very start of her career, drawing comparisons to the likes of Jill Scott, Erykah Badu and Jill Scott, but with her own Jazz influenced twist. The recent release of her third album Secret Garden has “elevated her to premier league status in one fell swoop” (B&S magazine), has gained rave reviews in music magazines and 2007 looks set to be a great year for Natalie.

Born and raised in Berlin, Germany with a Yugoslav-Hungarian mother and British father, Natalie attended the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin where she studied with renowned US jazz vocalist, Judy Niemack. After moving to London, she graduated in 2001 from the prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama, having been the first person to study both classical and jazz singing on the undergraduate course.

Since moving to the UK, Natalie has also performed in some of the country’s most famous venues headlining at The Jazz Café, Café de Paris, Cargo, The Barbican Centre and she also runs her own monthly event, “Soul Family Sundays” at London’s prestigious Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, where she performs with her incredible 10 piece band. Every month features invited special guests and the last few shows have included Jamie Cullum, Vula (Bassment Jaxx), Eska, Nate James and Lee Ryan among others.

Natalie has played all over the UK on high profile support tours, such as Grammy-nominated US R&B star Joe on his 2004 national tour (Birmingham NIA, Manchester Apollo, Hammersmith Apollo etc), she’s performed alongside Sunshine Anderson, City High, Dwele, Terri Walker, Amy Winehouse and Lemar, has played the London Jazz Festival, Berlin and Montreux Jazz Festivals and has also toured internationally in Europe, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Nepal.

She has been a featured guest artist on the Bugz In The Attic tour (V2 records) in 2006, sings in the Heritage Orchestra (signed to Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood Records) and regularly appears at all the ‘insiders’ live soul nights like Michelle Escoffery’s ‘Kindred Spirit’, Patrick Alan’s ‘Music Box’ and ‘CocoButta’ at Cargo.

With extensive airplay on Kiss Fm, Capital Fm, Smooth FM, Galaxy Fm, Radio 1’s Trevor Nelson, Gilles Peterson and Ras Kwame supporting her, a 2 month playlist on Radio 2, championed by Terry Wogan, Ken Bruce and Jeremy Vine and the Urban BBC1 Xtra ‘s G-Child and Ronnie Herel regularly getting behind Natalie’s music, not to mention the Myspace community, she has become a highly respected artist who’s profile and fanbase is growing immensely by the day worldwide.

In 2007, ‘Secret Garden’ will be seeing releases outside the UK, starting in Japan, South Africa, Germany and France. Until the promotional work in those countries starts taking up her time, Natalie will continue her extremely successful residency at Ronnie Scott's as one of the Ronnie Scott’s All Stars, as well as promoting Soul Family Sundays every month and will shortly be announcing details of a full UK tour with her 10-piece band.