williams mr jazz really in the twin cities also known as mr smooth for his wonderful sound and his beautiful phrasing you can talk about jazz in the twin cities in the last half century without mentioning earth way i'm soused probably the most popular and most familiar figure on the twin cities jazz scene last year arts midwest named irv a jazz master and those of us who have been listening to him for many years were glad to hear that glad that herb had received that kind of recognition but actually it was only an affirmation of what we've always felt that he is a master not only a master musician but a wonderful person with the warm generous spirit that comes through in his playing as does his joy of playing which is contagious infectious with the audience irv williams mr mr jazz seventy nine years old still going strong playing beautifully and enjoying it probably just as much as he did when he was a kid and my sister was hero and i was so used to she played the piano and i played the fiddle and we used to do concerts a couple of times you know and people would clap and thought it was just the greatest stuff to her and i was just  cute little guy in the world of course and i started growing and i wasn't so cute no longer and his try to listen to the fiddle and i was in my gig on the fi and then i started planning the clarinet at age about twelve and i had a bad case of bronchitis and my dad had decided that  clarinet alles i don't like the sound of the sound of the r l so i went out and picked it up and brought it back home and start a plan and i really decided that i liked it and i was plannin the neighborhood was getting upset and everything and a dad finally came a says son do you think you should let your minds rest for a while you know you're doing real good in everything and watch just there's i think one of the things that any listener will notice almost immediately is his sound and as many of you know who have listen to jazz over the years and read about it that's the one thing musicians strive for is their own personal sound a nurse definitely is i mean you can hear something of the history of the tenor saxophone in his playing and he's been playing so listen to so many other players so you get a history lesson in jazz tenor saxophone when your listener a boy and my daughter lara a tune in title lower somebody asked me  recorded this tune on one of my c d s i can remember twenty i asked me to play this number and i played it and they came up and said well it was like the record can't play like the record i could listen to it and try to memorize it but you know it was off the cuff so as all that stuff is and it's just impossible for any jazz musician that i know this worth the salt to play the same number the same way because we are improvising and we're doing the stuff that comes  another thing that distinguishes her as it does many other jazz players is the relaxed way in which she plays the effortless way with some musicians and they look like it's hard work like they're putting in an eight hour day i want to you know with there are no such thing he has such an easy unforced style and it has nothing to do it his age or the fact that he's often seeded it's just the way he approaches the music i think it's his personality and with great musicians as with any kind of artist the best are the ones whose personalities come through in their playing or whatever else you know a lot of people asked me who years why we make faces and my answer always been it's such hard work and we were trying to thank you know what to play next and everything we all have our little ways of express expressing as ourselves and it's very interesting to watch all of us i do watching musicians and watch their facial expressions and listen to the music and and you find that everything they play coincides with with their actions their physical actions and so forth i know a lady came up to me once and she says i how can you play and you're your feet are out of rhythm i said yeah i thirty six it was played by a gentleman who had been paris for quite a few years i have to make a name for himself here in the states his name was cohen hawkins and he made a classic recording of body and so and everybody was planned this tune all over the world and they're playing his two courses and he did on them and downbeat wrote out the whole two courses and i spent about a year trying to learn the two courses finally i just gave up on it and i said well i'm i would do it the way i think i should do it and so this we have been doing it i think i've played this tune about and play it over sixty years so i the gentleman you're listening to make arrive stand on piano