Drew Williams saves his listeners a lot of speculative rumination. Rather than guessing at the Kansas City musician’s inspirations for his three-month-old release Demons Hate Fresh Air, Williams provided a syllabus for the album in which he reveals the film, literature and music that informed the recording.
He cites albums by Michael Blake, Ornette Coleman, Joe Henderson, Sonny Rollins, Andy Shauf and Thom Yorke in the latter category. The stylistic diversity lends invigorating unpredictability to Demons Hate Fresh Air.
Collaborating with bassist Ben Tervort and drummer Brian Steever- the reigning Plastic Sax Person of the Year- Williams honors his jazz heroes by transcending genre. His cohorts demonstrate their elite chops on knotty selections such as Coleman’s “Street Woman.”
The innovative “Green Girl” seems ready-made for 2036. The insinuating “Fix Your Heart (or Die)”- a holdover from Williams’ Live at Weights and Measures album- indicates he’s a standout composer. “Bend Your Ear” is similarly insinuating. The album closes with an effective reading of Yorke’s "Dawn Chorus".
Plastic Sax ranked the album release show for Demons Hate Fresh Air the second-best performance by a Kansas City artist in 2025. Anyone not at Stray Cat Film Center last December 4 needn’t feel left out. The album continues provides an equally memorable experience.