“You kind of just go numb for a minute,” Williams said. “It was kind of a blur after hearing we won.”

Williams’ kinship with jazz began at 8 years old, when he began to teach himself to play piano. He learned how to play the bass cello, his instrument of choice, in middle school, and never looked back.

After graduating from MSU in 2007, he attended the Juilliard School in New York, where he became friends with Etienne Charles, now a professor in the MSU College of Music.

“He was in town when we met,” Charles said. “He was doing a gig at a club. When he enrolled in Juilliard in the fall of 2007, we had class together.”

The two quickly formed a close friendship and began playing music together, which they continue to do.

“We played gigs together around the city,” Charles said. “We have a working relationship as well as a friendship. We travel and play together a lot.”

Despite the initial shock of receiving the Grammy, Williams was no newcomer to music recognition. In 2012, he was named Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.

He also won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition in 2009, which got him a recording contract with Concord Records and helped him produce his first solo album, “State of Art,” in 2011.

“I have been very blessed to receive a few awards in my short career, and every one means a lot in their own ways,” Williams said.

For music education sophomore Colin McCune, seeing an MSU alumnus succeed in music provides encouragement on his own career path.

“It makes me have faith in the program,” McCune said. “It makes me excited to keep going and see how far I can get.”

When it comes to style, Charles said Williams’ wide knowledge of other music genres sets him apart from other jazz musicians, both as a solo artist and a band member.

“The thing with Ben is his attention to detail and his ability to move in and out of different styles with music,” Charles said. “A big part of it is musicology and a big part is being able to connect with the person, and we just have a good connection.”

Although he hasn’t had the opportunity to visit often, Williams said he still has gratitude for his MSU roots.

“I learned so much from the jazz program there,” he said. “Just being in college, at MSU, I had so many great experiences.”