Kimathi Asante

1951 - 2025

News story
By Tom Henry
Blade Staff Writer

Kimathi Asante, a noted jazz musician, music educator, world traveler, and avid record collector who lived in the Toledo area for the past 25 years, died suddenly of heart failure on Dec. 1 in Toledo. He was 74.

Mr. Asante was born in Springfield, Ohio, on Nov. 9, 1951, under the name Thomas Lee Williams.

He also went by the name of Jasper Williams while growing up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where graduated from Yellow Springs High School in 1970. He then enrolled in Antioch College, where he earned a degree in music theory.

One of Mr. Asante's biggest motivations for enrolling in Antioch was to study music under famed jazz pianist-poet Cecil Taylor, who was doing a residency there at the time.

"He would have us practice from 10 o'clock at night until 2 in the morning, seven days a week, for months on end," Mr. Asante recalled in 2022 for a New York Times article. "We had chops that were just off the charts."

Though Mr. Asante played many instruments, he was best known as a bass player.

"He was an instrumental genius," said Trenia Johnson, a half-sister who lives in Toledo. "Every instrument he picked up he could play."

Perhaps the most notable of several groups he formed or played with was the Pyramids, which he and other Antioch musicians formed in 1973.

The group released three albums during its three-year existence. The young musicians in that band were considered ahead of their time by the way they performed an avant-garde style of African jazz. The Pyramids created music "that was so overtly African, you would have thought it was coming direct from Kenya or Senegal," the article said.

Bobbie Johnston, a jazz musician who moved back to Toledo after years in New York, said musicologists consider those three albums to be jazz classics.

Tim Friedman, Culture Clash Records owner, agreed.

Mr. Asante spent a lot of his time in recent years inside that record store. Mr. Friedman and his store manager said they were impressed by his affable demeanor, not knowing at first about his history as a musician.

"We were fans of Kimathi's at Culture Clash, recognizing the importance of his work with the Pyramids," Mr. Friedman said. "He introduced himself as Thomas, but as he grew comfortable with us, we eventually knew his smiling face as Kimathi's. We were just starting to get to know the man, but we consider it an honor to help preserve his legacy."

Mr. Johnston said he was thrilled to meet Mr. Asante at the Peacock Cafe in November of 2024. The two struck up a close friendship. Along with two other musicians, they formed a quartet that was recording music for what was going to be Mr. Asante's comeback album after a 10-year hiatus from performing.

Their friendship went much deeper than that.

"Music and culture aside, the most important thing Kimathi got me to do was getting me back into my faith," Mr. Johnston said. "I will never forget that. I cannot turn back now and will never turn back from that. He wanted to bring glory to God, the creator of the universe."

The pyramid climb near Cairo

Before forming the Pyramids, Mr. Asante went with other musicians on a nine-month work-study program across Africa and Europe that Antioch sponsored. They later went back as a group and performed in Morocco, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and other countries.

On his first trip to Africa in 1972, Mr. Asante was bold enough to climb one of the pyramids near Cairo.

A security guard chased him to the top. But Mr. Asante charmed him into taking his photograph before making him come down, Mr. Johnston said.

Mr. Asante was given the name "Kwame Asante" during a trip to Ghana and changed his first name to "Kimathi" while in Kenya.

He spent much of the 1990s as an educator in Hawaii before coming to northwest Ohio in 2000 for a job at Bowling Green State University.

In Toledo, Mr. Asante helped create and teach at the former Paul Laurence Dunbar Academy, a charter school with a performing arts emphasis. At one time, he served as principal. It closed in 2010.

In recent years, Mr. Asante earned money for trips back to Hawaii as a Lyft driver.

'His heart was undeniable'

Survivors include his brother Allen Williams; sisters Rosemary Valentine, Katherine Williams, Pauline Williams Lindsey, Susan Pritchett; and half-sisters Trenia Johnson and Gloria Evans.

Mr. Asante enjoyed listening to and occasionally sitting in as a musician at Jazz Collective shows inside the Peacock Cafe, 2007 Monroe St., which will hold a wake for him at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"He was a really good friend of mine," said Andre Wright, a jazz drummer and Peacock's music promoter.

Mr. Asante's memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Sunday inside CedarCreek Church in West Toledo, 2600 W. Sylvania Ave., which he attended.

That will be followed by a remembrance at 4 p.m. Sunday inside Culture Clash Records, 912 Monroe St.

Another celebration of life is planned for the summer in Yellow Springs.

Mr. Johnston said he won't forget Mr. Asante's smile and laughter.

"He'll always be with me," he said. "I thank God for being able to cross his path. His heart was undeniable."