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Yasmin Williams: Tiny Desk Concert

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Published
Lars Gotrich | February 7, 2025
Yasmin Williams is a fingerstyle guitarist who taps, slaps and slides up and down the fretboard of her instrument with a commanding sense of scenery that flickers between the strings. Storytellers build worlds; at the Tiny Desk, Williams invites us into hers.

Each song in this performance is a chapter that introduces the characters in and around her music. "Hummingbird" features the clawhammer banjo of Allison de Groot and fiddle of Tatiana Hargreaves — they're fixtures in the old-time music scene who help to bring this rapturous romp to life. (And, aside from recording "Hummingbird" for Acadia, this is only the second time that the trio has performed the composition together.) The majestic "Sisters" invites strings, djembe and a 10-foot marimba behind the Desk to paint a picture of a beautiful Oregon town that, in Williams' estimation, needs some scenic overlooks.

We love a story that comes full circle. In 2018, we were mesmerized by Williams' Tiny Desk Contest entry, in which she performed "Guitka" with a kalimba taped to her guitar and tap shoes on her feet. She reprises the song here, with the help of djembe player Amadou Kouyate. "It's fun to do everything at the same time!" she tells the crowd, which includes family and friends from her Northern Virginia home. (Her mom beamed telling me about the time Williams won an NYU talent show as a college freshman.) When Williams closes with an early track, "Restless Heart," we're taken back to the beginning: A kid who'd whoop her brothers at Guitar Hero, fell in love with the instrument itself, but never lost her sense of play.

SET LIST
"Hummingbird"
"Sisters"
"Guitka"
"Restless Heart"

MUSICIANS
Yasmin Williams: guitar, kalimba, tap shoes
Allison de Groot: banjo
Tatiana Hargreaves: fiddle
Lelia-Michelle Walker: viola
Maggy Simon: violin
Morgan Brown: viola
Marcus Grant: marimba
Amadou Kouyate: djembe

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Lars Gotrich
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
Audio Engineer: Andie Huether
Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
Photographer: Sofia Seidel
Tiny Desk Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins

#yasminwilliams #nprmusic #tinydesk
Category
Jazz
Tags
NPR, NPR Music, National Public Radio
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