Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Keyan Williams now makes his home in Meriden, CT after many years in Phoenix, AZ. The multi-talented musician started playing the sax at age 8 and by the age of 16 he was playing jazz sax and classical flute. When saxophonist Keyan Williams released his debut album The Art of Living in 2006, the smooth jazz format was already contracting, leaving steep challenges for new independent artists to find avenues to get their music heard. One of his radio station contacts suggested some unique grass roots approaches to promotion, including placing the tracks up on GarageBand in the contemporary jazz category. Williams' tunes created an immediate sensation, averaging a rating of 4.5/5 stars; the most popular of these songs, "Thought I Told You About That" stayed on the chart for over four months, leading to terrestrial airplay on stations in Phoenix (where Keyan lived from 2000 to 2008 and recorded The Art of Living with musicians Jeremiah Norah and Raymond Love) and Reno. Williams also submitted his CD to The Weather Channel, which spun four tracks for over a year and a half, exposing his music to millions of people. Another sweet success from the album was the techno-house/jazz influenced tune "Swift Kick", which was a huge hit on the college radio circuit. Williams was also one of only four artists chosen (out of 400 entrants) for a digital distribution deal with Iris Distribution via Sonicbids—and the only jazz artist.
The Brooklyn born and raised, NYC based Williams built such an enthusiastic fan base that his few years away from recording due to personal issues and other business endeavors led many of his supporters to reach out asking when he would be back in action, and supporting him every step of the way as he did so. While still grounded in the style of his personal musical hero Grover Washington, Jr., Williams takes some outside the box risks on his second full-length project It's All About You. Explaining the title of the album, he says, "While my fans were asking me about the next CD, they would tell me what they loved about the first one. So I decided to create a CD based on what they said they loved. It's about my fans, those people who kept me uplifted during this challenging time in my life. I'm always writing songs that reflect everything I'm going through, and my goal was for them to identify with my music. I started out with 25 songs and chose the ones that stuck with me and which I felt they would enjoy best."
Williams is the founder of Told U So Productions, a company for which he works on developing artists while he continues writing and producing. In addition to his own projects, he is currently collaborating with other artists, looking into producing two singers and working on a project combining poetry and jazz with four poets. He is also a major endorser, with nine total endorsements for mouthpieces, reeds, mics and sax accessories; he is an endorsee of Selmer Paris and Yanagisawa Saxophones.