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Photograph by Brett Carlsen
Venzella Joy Williams is a Buffalo, New York native and currently the drummer for Beyonce. Williams grew up playing drums in church and school but now tours the world performing.
Orchard Park, New York
12/23/14
This week I got to interview Vanzella “Joy” Williams aka Joy The Drummer and a member of Beyonce all girl band!
Venzella Joy has been playing drums since the age of 10. She started perfecting her craft by learning to play by ear in church, and later learned the fundamentals of music theory in her elementary school band. Joy joined the high school orchestra, where she learned to play multiple percussion instruments and later, in college, she performed with the jazz ensemble. Joy also co-founded Heaven Bound: The All-Girl Band with which she’s played various venues and collaborated with a number of gospel artists over the years.
In March of 2009, Joy was featured on MTV’s reality show competition, Making His Band, with Sean “Diddy” Combs where she worked alongside Combs and other industry veterans. 2009 was bittersweet for Joy because she lost her mother, Vet Howard, that year. Vet was very supportive of Joy’s career choice, and loved hearing Joy practice for hours. The following year, Joy graduated from Canisius College with a B.A. in Criminal Justice and a minor in music. In October of 2013, Joy was the performance drummer for BET’s Black Girls Rock, performing with artists such as Patti LaBelle, Jennifer Hudson, Janelle Monae, Ledisi, and have been on tour with Beyonce as her drummer for the all girl band.
See Joy In Action (Hit Like A Girl)
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