She began performing jazz in her teens, playing with Richie Cole, Buck Hill, and Mickey Fields.

In a radio interview with Marian McPartland on NPR's Piano Jazz from 1992, she stated that her main influences were not pianists, but Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

[1] In June 1976, Williams began performing regularly with the "Philly Joe" Jones band in New Jersey, and with Lex Humphries in Philadelphia and New York City, before moving to the West Coast in October 1976.

She worked with Eddie Harris, Tony Williams, Stan Getz, Bobby Hutcherson, and Charlie Haden, eventually leading her own jazz trio, and recording regularly for several decades.

In 2012, Williams had a Spinal fusion with internal instrumentation at Swedish Hospital's Neurosurgery Unit in Seattle, WA, and subsequently lost her ability to perform.