Milan Williams, 58; a Co-Founder of Motown’s Commodores

Milan Williams, 58, one of the original members of the Commodores, the band that rose to the top of the charts in the 1970s on the Motown label, died July 9, according to Jo-Ann Geffen, a spokeswoman for the group.

Williams, the group’s keyboardist, died of complications from leukemia at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He had been a resident of Los Angeles.

A native of Mississippi, Williams was a founder of the Jays, a rhythm and blues group, in the 1960s.

In the late ‘60s he met up with the musicians who became the Commodores at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, Geffen said. The original group included Lionel Richie, William King, Thomas McClary, Walter Orange and Ronald LaPread as well as Williams.

They alternated between funk, rhythm and blues and romantic ballads with early hits including “Machine Gun,” an instrumental written by Williams. Other hits included “Slippery When Wet,” “Brick House” and “Easy.”

The group went through changes in members over the years. Richie, the lead singer, launched a solo career in the early 1980s. Milan remained with the Commodores until 1989. Currently the group includes King, Orange and James Nicholas.