Sippie Wallace born November 1, 1898

Sippie Wallace (November 1, 1898 – November 1, 1986) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter and one of the a major blues artists of the 1920s, whose renown as a performer carried well into the 1980s. Her early career in tent shows gained her the billing "The Texas Nightingale".

Wallace was born Beulah Belle Thomas in the Delta lowlands of Jefferson County, Arkansas, the fourth of 13 children in her family. Wallace came from a musical family: her brother George Washington Thomas became a notable pianist, bandleader, composer, and music publisher; a brother Hersal Thomas, was a pianist and composer; her niece Hociel Thomas (George's daughter) was a pianist and composer. When she was a child her family moved to Houston, Texas. She was nicknamed "Sippie" because, as she states, "my teeth were so far apart and I had to sip everything." In her youth she sang and played the piano in Shiloh Baptist Church, where her father was a deacon, but in the evenings she and her siblings took to sneaking out to tent shows. By the time she was in her mid-teens, Wallace learned blues and ragtime music in the shows, in addition to performing in chorus lines and acting in comedy skits. These experiences influenced her contributions as a blues artist.

In 1915, Wallace moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, with Hersal. Two years later she married Matt Wallace and took his surname. Wallace followed her brothers to Chicago in 1923 and worked her way into the city's bustling jazz scene. Her reputation led to a recording contract with Okeh Records in 1923. Her first recorded songs, "Shorty George" and "Up the Country Blues", the former written with her brother George, sold well enough to make her a blues star in the early 1920s. Other successful recordings followed, including "Special Delivery Blues" (with Louis Armstrong), "Bedroom Blues" (written by George and Hersal Thomas), and "I'm a Mighty Tight Woman". Hersal Thomas died of food poisoning in 1926, at age 19. In 1929 Wallace settled in Detroit, where she would live for the rest of her life.

                                    

Matt Wallace died in 1936 and George Thomas Washington died on March 6, 1937. With neither the experience nor the guidance from her brother to guide her in refocusing her career, Wallace was unable to adapt her style to changing tastes, and by 1932 she had slipped into the same obscurity as other female blues artists of her era.

Aside from an occasional performance or recording date, she did little in the blues until she launched a comeback in 1966, after her long-time friend Victoria Spivey coaxed her out of retirement, and Wallace toured on the folk and blues festival circuit. Wallace recorded an album, Women Be Wise, on October 31, 1966, in Copenhagen, Denmark, with Roosevelt Sykes and Little Brother Montgomery playing the piano. She recorded another album in 1966, Sippie Wallce Sings the Blues, on which she accompanied herself on piano on the title song, with Sykes or Montgomery playing piano on other tracks. Both albums include her signature song, "Women Be Wise". These recordings helped inspire the musician Bonnie Raitt to take up singing and playing the blues in the late 1960s. Raitt recorded renditions of "Women Be Wise" and "Mighty Tight Woman" on her self-titled debut album in 1971. 

Wallace contributed to Louis Armstrong's album Louis Armstrong and the Blues Singers (1966), singing "A Jealous Woman Like Me", "Special Delivery Blues", "Jack o'Diamond Blues", "The Mail Train Blues" and "I Feel Good". She and Spivey recorded an album of blues standards, Sippie Wallace and Victoria Spivey, released in 1970 by Spivey's label, Spivey Records. In 1981, Wallace recorded the album Sippie for Atlantic Records, which earned her a 1983 Grammy nomination and won the 1982 W. C. Handy Award for Best Blues Album of the Year. Wallace's backup group was pianist James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band, consisting of Paul Klinger on cornet, Bob Smith on trombone and Russ Whitman and Peter Ferran on reeds.

She appeared at the Newport Folk Festival in 1966 and 1967, toured Europe with the American Folk Blues Festival in 1966, performed at the Chicago Blues Festival in 1967. In the 1970s Wallace's performances were curtailed due to failing health. She suffered a stroke in 1970 that left her temporarily wheelchair-bound and forced her to end her stint as organist of the Leland Baptist Church, but recovered sufficiently to perform at the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1972, Wallace toured and recorded with Raitt in the 1970s and 1980s and continued to perform on her own. The duo performed the song "Woman Be Wise" on Late Night with David Letterman on April 27, 1982, with Dr. John accompanying on piano, in support of her album "Sippie". With backing vocals by Raitt, the album was nominated for a 1983 Grammy award for best traditional blues and earned the W.C. Handy Award for best blues album of 1983 the following year. She shared the stage with B.B. King at the Montreaux Jazz Festival on July 22, 1982, in a performance that was filmed and later broadcast.

Sippie with Bonnie Rait

In 1983-84 she traveled to Germany to tour, returning to that country again in the spring of 1986. Despite her failing health, her concerts were highly acclaimed. Fortunately for her fans, many of these performances were recorded with the German boogie-woogie pianist Axel Zwingenberger which would become Wallace's lasting legacy to the blues. In March 1986, following a concert at the Burghausen Jazz Festival in Germany, Wallace suffered a severe stroke and was hospitalized. She returned to the United States and died in the Sinai Hospital in Detroit on November 1, 1986, her 88th birthday.

She was buried at Trinity Cemetery, in Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan. In 1993 she was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame.

(Edited from Wikipedia, All About Jazz & Encyclopedia.com) 

Booker Ervin born October 31, 1930

Booker Ervin (October 31, 1930 – August 31, 1970) was a powerful, blues‑driven American tenor saxophonist best known for his work with Charles Mingus and his influential series of Prestige albums in the 1960s.

Booker Telleferro Ervin II was born in Denison, Texas, United States. He came to the tenor saxophone late and by an unlikely road: his father, who had played trombone with Buddy Tate, taught him that horn first, and Ervin only took up the tenor saxophone in the U.S. Air Force, teaching himself while stationed in Okinawa, Japan.  After completing his military service in 1953, he pursued formal training at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After studying music in Boston for two years, he moved to Tulsa in 1954, he played with the band of Ernie Fields. After stays in Denver and Pittsburgh, Ervin moved to New York City in spring 1958, initially working a day job and playing jam sessions at night. What came out of that horn was one of the most distinctive sounds in jazz — a tenor that didn’t just sing but cried, smeared and testified, Texas blues and gospel carried in every bent note.

Charles Mingus

Charles Mingus heard it before almost anyone, and from late 1958 Ervin was the bassist’s tenor of choice through his greatest run of albums. On Mingus Ah Um his mournful solo carries “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat,” Mingus’s elegy for Lester Young; a year later, on Blues & Roots, his preaching chorus on “Moanin'” became the sound that record is remembered by. Mingus was the most demanding bandleader in jazz, and no saxophonist was trusted with more of his music. Ervin worked with Mingus regularly until 1960, rejoining various outfits led by the bassist at various times up to autumn 1964, when he departed for Europe. During the mid-1960s, Ervin led his own quartet, recording for Prestige Records with, among others, ex-Mingus associate pianist Jaki Byard, along with bassist Richard Davis and Alan Dawson on drums.

                           

Ervin later recorded for Blue Note Records and played with pianist Randy Weston, with whom he recorded between 1963 and 1966. Weston said: "Booker Ervin, for me, was on the same level as John Coltrane. He was a completely original saxophonist. He was a master."  Ervin’s own records turned his nickname into a bibliography. 

The band called him “Book” — Randy Weston remembered the chant of “Cook, Book, cook” — and the leader albums followed the pun: The Book Cooks in 1960, a two-tenor debut alongside Zoot Sims, then the Prestige run with pianist Jaki Byard, bassist Richard Davis and drummer Alan Dawson. Its peak came on December 3, 1963, at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in Englewood Cliffs: The Freedom Book, five long, searching performances that stretch hard bop toward freedom without ever letting go of the blues. The Song Book, The Blues Book and The Space Book completed the set within the year.

Between October 1964 to summer 1966, Ervin worked and lived in Europe, playing gigs in France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and The Netherlands. Basing himself in Barcelona, Spain, he featured regularly at the city's Jamboree Club. He recorded and broadcast while overseas, making albums with his own quartet, Dexter Gordon and Catalan vocalist Núria Feliu, featuring on various radio programmes and appearing at several jazz festivals, including a guest slot at the 1965 Berlin Jazz Festival, during which he performed a 25-minute improvisation. This performance was issued as "Blues For You" on the album Lament For Booker Ervin (Enja Records) in 1977.

Following his return to the United States in summer 1966, Ervin led his own groups in jazz clubs throughout the country, and appeared at both the Newport Jazz Festival (1967) and the Monterey Jazz Festival (1966) performing with Randy Weston; a recording of their performance was issued on CD in 1994. In 1968, Ervin again appeared at clubs and festivals in Scandinavia, broadcasting with the Danish Radio Big Band. He recorded again for Prestige, but in late 1966 was signed to West Coast label, Pacific Jazz, for whom he taped two albums, Structurally Sound and Booker 'n' Brass (1967), before switching to Blue Note.

Ervin recorded two Blue Note albums under his own name, In Between and Tex Book Tenor, the latter going unissued during his lifetime, initially being released in the 1970s as part of a double album shared with recordings (on which Ervin features) made under the leadership of Horace Parlan (Back from the Gig). Ervin's final recorded appearance occurred in January 1969, when he guested on a further Prestige album headed by teenage multi-instrumentalist Eric Kloss.

Ervin died of kidney disease in New York City in 1970, aged 39. Most biographical accounts of Ervin's death give an incorrect date. His gravestone in The National Cemetery, East Farmingdale, New York, clearly shows the date as August 31, 1970.

(Edited from Wikipedia & The World Of Sax)

 

Donnie Owens born October 30, 1932

Donnie Owens (aka Donald Lee Owens) (October 30, 1932 – October 27, 1994) was an American singer, guitarist, producer, and composer.

Owens was born on October 30, 1932, in Chester, Pennsylvania to parents John Easley Owens and Nellie Mae Brigman Owens. After high school he joined the United States Air Force and became an Airman First Class. He served in the Korean War. When fellow Korean War veteran Lee Hazlewood moved to Arizona, Owens helped him get a job as a disc jockey at KCKY, a small country station in Coolidge, Arizona. This was the beginning of a working relationship which spanned decades. Owens performed for almost five years as Donnie Owens and the 4 Jacks at Harry’s Capri Lounge in Phoenix, Arizona.

                                   

Owens recorded several singles on the Guyden Records label (a subsidiary of the Philadelphia-based Jamie Records label), each featuring Duane Eddy on guitar. His first release was in 1958 when he recorded songwriter Buddy Wheeler's song “Need You” at Loy Clingman's Viv Recording Studio in Phoenix, Arizona. “Need You” peaked at #25 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and stayed on the charts for 15 weeks In 2012, “Need You” was named by the Phoenix New Times as one of the 100 songs which define Arizona. His second release, “Tomorrow” was also written by Buddy Wheeler. The back-up vocals were provided by the Ben Denton Singers.

 “Tomorrow” charted in the Top 30 in Phoenix and was play listed in Chicago and Boston. It reached #89 on the Cashbox Top 100 Singles chart, but never charted in Billboard. His third Guyden song “Ask Me Anything,” was released in May 1959. It made the Top 30 in Phoenix, Arizona, but failed to chart nationally. During this period Owens played the rhythm guitar and was a Rebel in Duane Eddy`s band, Duane Eddy & The Rebels. He recorded with Eddy on his albums Have 'Twangy' Guitar Will Travel (Jamie Records, 1958), The “Twangs” The “Thang” (Jamie Records, 1959), Duane Eddy With Guests Donnie Owens and Neil Sedaka ( Reo Records, 1959), and Duane A Go Go Go (Colpix Records, 1965).

To promote his albums, Owens made appearance on numerous radio and TV shows. On November 2, 1958, Owens was featured on the Len Graham Record Hop and on January 14, 1959, he performed on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Owens also had releases on other record labels. In 1960 he recorded with rock'n'roll singer Don Cole as the Two Dons and released "Out In The Cold Again". In 1961 he recorded the single “Stormy (Came to Town)” (written by Lee Hazlewood) with B-side “What A Dream!” for Trey Records. The single was released in the US and Canada. “Stormy (Came To Town)” received airplay in Vancouver and peaked at #7. Vancouver was the only record market where the song charted. The same year Owens also released the promo single “No Love Lost”/’I Forgot About You” on Project Records. Both songs were written by Norma and Connie Conway and produced by Lee Hazlewood.

In 1966, Owens wrote and released the single “Heart Attack” with B-side “Loneliness of Hurt” (written by Jimmy Gray) on the Ramco label. Owens and Floyd Ramsey produced both sides. The same year, he released the single “My World” (written by Owens and Waylon Jennings) with B-side “Soldier’s Last Letter” (written by Ernest Tubb and Sgt. Henry Stewart) on the ARA label. Both sides were produced by Owens and Waylon Jennings. In 1967, he wrote and recorded the single, “Climbin’ the Walls,” which was the A-side to his cover of the song "These Boots Are Made for Walkin’” which was written by Lee Hazlewood and previously recorded by Nancy Sinatra. Owens and Waylon Jennings produced both sides. Owens played guitar for Nancy Sinatra’s album, Sugar (Reprise Records) and also performed with Nancy Sinatra at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. He also wrote songs for a number of other recording artists, including Budd the Spudd and the Sprouts, Virgil Warner, Johnny Wakely, Ray Sharpe, Sanford Clark and Mac Wiseman.

Rare photo of Donnie Owens

Owens played guitar on several Lee Hazlewood albums, including The N.S.V.I.P.'s (Not So Very Important People) (Reprise Records, 1965), Love and Other Crimes (Reprise Records, 1968), Requiem for an Almost Lady (Viking, 1971), and his Cowboy in Sweden soundtrack (LHI Records, 1970). In 1968 Owens was a guitarist on the Elvis Presley RCA Records release “Speedway,” the original motion picture soundtrack for the MGM motion picture of the same name. Having developed a loyal following, Owens continued to do back up work and perform locally in the \phoenix area for many years.

On October 27, 1994, Owens was accidentally killed at the Palms Motel in Phoenix, Arizona. His girlfriend, the manager of the hotel, was trying to scare off a man who was threatening Owens, but instead, accidentally shot Owens in the stomach. He was taken to the hospital where he died of his injuries on October 27, 1994, at the age of 61, just a few days prior to his 62nd birthday. He was interred at National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona in Phoenix.

(Edited from Wikipedia)

Eddie Cole born October 29, 1910

Edward Bennett Coles (October 29, 1910 – June 18, 1970), known professionally as Eddie Cole, was an American jazz musician and brother to musicians Nat King Cole, Freddy Cole, and Ike Cole.

Jazz bassist Eddie Cole had the misfortune to be the older sibling of a much more famous musician, jazz and pop legend Nat "King" Cole. He never saw anything like the popularity of his younger brother, though they worked together during the late '30s and Eddie Cole got to cut his first credited records as a bandleader in association with Nat "King" Cole's late-'30s group the Rogues of Rhythm.

The first child of Reverend Edward J. Coles and the former Perlina Adams, Eddie Cole was born in 1910 in Montgomery, Alabama.  He was the second oldest of ten children and the oldest son.  His brothers Nat King Cole (1919–1965), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (1931–2020) also each pursued careers in music. In 1923 the family moved to Chicago. As a boy, Eddie studied both piano and bass and by the time he was 17, he had organized his own band. 

                                   

At age 20, he was recruited into the ranks of Noble Sissle's band the Sizzling Syncopators, staying there six years and playing alongside such greats and Sidney Bechet and Clarence Brereton. He married Thelma Madison in Detroit, Michigan, in 1933 but later married actress Betty King. Following a tour of Europe in 1936, Cole left Sissle's band to join his brother's group, the Rogues of Rhythm, with whom he recorded both under their name and also several sides credited to Eddie Cole's Solid Swingers, which featured him on vocals and bass as well as piano.

Eddie on bass

Following World War II, Cole relocated to Philadelphia, where he organized a new group mixing comedy and jazz, called the Three Loose Nuts and a Bolt; later on, he changed his focus more exclusively toward music, renaming his band Eddie Cole & His Gang. The group, which included Jimmy White on guitar, Duke Johnson on bass, and Charles "Jelly Bean" Johnson on drums, was popular locally and released three singles on Ivin Ballen's Gotham Records label in 1950, but Cole never enjoyed anything like the success or fame of his younger brother.

During the second half of the 1950s, Cole moved to Los Angeles and later formed a piano/vocal duo, the Two Hot Coles, with his wife, the former Betty King; they were among the earliest artists signed to the fledgling Warner Bros. label at the end of the 1950s. His contact with Warner Bros. gave Eddie Cole one last chance at stardom in 1959 when he took on a role in the new Warner Bros. television detective series Bourbon Street Beat, playing the Baron, a pianist at the New Orleans club around which the action took place. The series only lasted a year, though it did yield a soundtrack album that included Cole. He later appeared on The Law and Mr. Jones and The Jack Benny Program.

He retired in the 1960s, and died on June 18, 1970, at the age of 59.

(Edited mainly from AllMusic)

Eddie Cletro born October 28, 1918

Eddie Cletro (October 28, 1918 - February 2, 2012) was an American musician, bandleader, and radio personality best known for his work in Western and country music.

He was born Eddie Oliver Clethero in New Jersey in 1918. Later, advertising made much of Cletro's Irish heritage and the family name was originally O'Clethero. When he was nine years old, Eddie took a liking to music and began to playing the ukulele. By the time he was 14, he learned the guitar and was leading his first band. He started performing when he was just a young teenager, finding a fun way to make an extra buck. His family moved to California, where, inspired by the Beverly Hillbillies and other local followers of country and western music, he led his own string band as a teenager.

The early 1940s found him working with Stuart Hamblen and the Lucky Stars over radio station KFWB in Los Angeles, California which ran an hour and 15 minutes each day. In the evenings, Eddie would perform at the Tom Brenneman restaurant. Eddie noticed that the patrons didn't seem to react much to the bands popular renditions of the day. But whenever the band slipped in a western tune or two, their audiences would get a bit more enthusiastic. This gave Eddie the impetus to make a switch to being a western music performer - exclusively. As so often was the case back then, the stars or their managers thought that they would be liked more if they were truly from a western town instead of their bona fide roots. Eddie decided that being from Colgate, Oklahoma and changing his name to Eddie Cletro would sound better to the audiences. He also dropped the clarinets and trombones that were in his band and added fiddles and accordion to give him a western sound.

                                   

By 1946 Eddie was working six nights a week at the Palomino Nightclub in West Hollywood. Spade Cooley would come in and sit in to listen to the bands playing there at the time, then leave. Spade decided he had liked what he heard at hired Eddie to play for his band at the Santa Monica Ballroom each weekend. He was with Spade for about a year, then he and his band moved to begin working with Foreman Phillips in 1947 in Baldwin Park, California, and later at the Town Hall in Compton, California.

Around 1949 or so, Eddie prodded Foreman Phillips into trying television and also got KABC-TV interested, too. When they did get the show on the air, it was pretty informal and spontaneous for the most part - no scripts. The band showed up, did their songs and bits but the fans enjoyed it all the same. All told, he was with Foreman Phillips about four and a half years. The show was called "Foreman Phillips Presents" and starred Foreman Phillips and featured Eddie Cletro and his Western Variety Band. The show aired from Stage 2 at the ABC Television Center in Hollywood.

Eddie & His Round-Up Boys appeared in the movie "The Trail of the Rustlers" that starred Charles Starrett, known then as the Durango Kid and Smiley Burnette and released by Columbia Pictures in 1950. They made their first recordings for the Lariat label in the early 1950s. This formation included outstanding musicians such as steel guitarists Tommy Sargent and Ernie Ball and lead guitarist Cameron Hill. They later recorded for Imperial, Decca, Columbia, Viper and Sage N Sand. The group also accompanied musicians such as Rose Maddox and Eddie Dean on memorable recordings in the mid-fifties. Although he had no hit records, several of his recordings have long been highly sought after among collectors, particularly the great, rocking double-sider from 1952, First Class, Second Hand Woman  b/w Flying Saucer Boogie. In addition, they were considered stars of local television for a few years, first with Foreman Phillips on KABC and then with Doyle O'Dell on KTLA's popular show 'Western Varieties'. The show ran for 6 years. Eddie also worked with other prominent regional figures, including Cliffie Stone and Hank Penny.

During 1955, when his daughter, Diane, was about nine years old, Eddie recorded a holiday record with her, "Santa Claus, Jr." for Sage & Sand Records. Diane recalled that it was quite an experience for a little girl. They recorded the tune at Eddie Dean's home studio. They worked until nearly 2:00am to finish the final recording of the tune. After its release it led to lots of personal appearances, autograph signing sessions, as well as an appearance  on the Western Varieties television show. 

Eddie and his band, his Roundup Boys, were regulars at the Beverly Wilshire hotel in Beverly Hills. Through the years he played many events, with big names of the day. By the end of the decade the Roundup Boys were slowly phased out. By 1960 Eddie was leading a strolling trio with two violinists, still performing at the Beverly Wiltshire Hotel, where he remained until 1965. Afterwards he moved into sales but continued to gig on a more casual basis. Eventually he eased into retirement. 

He married his high school sweetheart, Wynne, and they enjoyed 54 happy years before she died in 1992. At the age of 80 he married his good friend Susan, and they enjoyed 5 happy years of golf course living in Palm Desert before she passed away. He moved to Sonoma in 2004, and lived with his daughter and son in law for 8 happy years. For a time he was a member of the Vintage house singers. He continued to sing and play his beloved 54 Gibson into his 90's. 

Eddie passed away peacefully February 2, 2012 at Palm Springs, Riverside County, California. He was 93 years old. 

(Edited from Hillbilly Music, Find-a-Grave & Bear Family liner notes)

Ruby Wright born October 27, 1939

Ruby Wright (October 27, 1939 – September 27, 2009) was an American country music singer-songwriter. Wright was the daughter of country singers Kitty Wells and Johnnie Wright. She sang with her parents as a young girl and at age 13, was signed by RCA Records as Ruby Wells because there was also a Ruby Wright who was a pop singer.

In the mid-1950s, she became part of an all-girl trio, 'Nita, Rita and Ruby. The Nita of the trio was Anita Carter of the well-known Carter Family. In the mid-50s, she was a member of a close-harmony female singing trio, Nita, Rita and Ruby (Nita was Anita Carter and Rita was Rita Robbins, the sister of Marty Robbins’ guitarist and yodeller, Don Winters). 

Working with Atkins, they leaned heavily towards a pop presentation but were backed by country studio musicians, and they had minor success with numbers such as ‘Rock Love’ and ‘Hi De Ank Tum’. They were basically only a recording act, since family touring made live appearances difficult for Nita and Ruby. Rita never conquered her stage fright; the trio broke up and she retired. Ruby also made some recordings (1954-1956) as Ruby Wells with her father and uncle as Johnnie and Jack and Ruby.

                                   

Ruby began to sing with her sister, Carol Sue Wright, as the Wright Sisters, recording one single in 1961 (again with Atkins) for Cadence Records, who saw them as a female version of the label’s popular Everly Brothers. In 1964, as Ruby Wright, she had a Top 15 solo US country and minor pop hit with ‘Dern Ya’, a female answer song to Roger Miller’s ‘Dang Me’. It later served as the title track for her 1966 solo studio album released by Kapp Records. 

The Wright Sisters

In the late 60s, she made the country chart with her Epic label recordings of ‘A New Place To Hang Your Hat’ and ‘(I Can Find) A Better Deal Than That’.

During the 1970s, she recorded for several small labels including Plantation and Scorpion and had some success with ‘Yester-me, Yester-you, Yesterday’. She continued to appear on the 'Kitty Wells/Johnny Wright Family Show' television series, which ran from 1969 through the early '70s. In the 1980s, along with her sister Carol Sue, took to running the family Museum and Tourist attraction in Nashville.

Ruby Wright was married twice in her life: First Marriage was to Larry Vernon Stephenson in 1956. Second Marriage was to Leo Franklin Taylor on December 29, 1966, and went by the married name Ruby Wright Taylor later in life.

Ruby was last seen publicly at her mother's 90th birthday party at Nashville's Texas Troubadour Theater a few weeks later she died of heart-related illness in her Madison, Tennessee apartment on September 27, 2009, at age 69. Her father, Johnnie, died two years later to the day.

(Edited from Wikipedia & AllMusic) 

Detroit Junior born October 26, 1931

Emery Williams Jr. (October 26, 1931 – August 9, 2005), known as Detroit Junior, was an American blues pianist, vocalist and songwriter. He is known for songs such as "So Unhappy", "Call My Job", "If I Hadn't Been High", "Ella" and "Money Tree". His songs have been covered by Koko Taylor, Albert King and other blues artists.

Born in Haynes, Arkansas Emery Williams, Jr., spent his childhood in southern Illinois. He then moved to Flint where he worked three years in automobile plants. He was already an experienced entertainer and piano player when came to Chicago in 1956 and had been leading his own band, the Blues Chaps, since he was 19, playing clubs in Pontiac and Flint. For three years they had been the house band at The Circle Club in Detroit, backing touring stars like Roscoe Gordon, Eddie Boyd, John Lee Hooker and Amos Milburn. Milburn was Junior’s idol, and his humorous blues about the evils of alcohol inspired some of Junior’s best songwriting.

                                   

It was Eddie Boyd who first brought Junior to Chicago, hoping to line up a contract for him with Chess Records. The Chess deal didn’t work out at first, but Junior fell in with J.T Brown, the city’s leading blues sax man. They landed a gig at Club 99, then at the legendary Squeeze Club. Junior quickly won a following with his percussive piano and energetic stage show. He paired up with harp man Little Mack Simmons, and they settled into a steady gig as house band at Cadillac Baby’s South Side club. Cadillac ran his own label, Bea & Baby, and soon had the piano man in the studio to cut his first 45, “Money Tree.” That record marked the first appearance of “Detroit Junior;” before that time he had been known as Little Junior Williams, but Cadillac dubbed him with a new nickname on the record label, and when the record became a local hit, the nickname stuck.

Chess Records, sensing they had missed something, signed Junior, but subsequent singles didn’t sell, and he cut for Foxy, CL and Palos before waxing his next hit, the original “Call My Job,” on U.S.A., in 1965. The flipside, “The Way I Feel,” a spontaneous and sensitive piano solo, proved that Junior had talent for deep blues as well as novelty tunes. During the ‘60s, Junior gigged with Mack Simmons, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay and Johnny Twist. From 1968 on, he toured and recorded with the late Howlin’ Wolf, playing everywhere from college auditoriums to Big Duke’s Flamingo club (a converted funeral parlour that never quite lost its original ambiance). When the Wolf died, Junior stuck with the band, The Wolf Gang, under the leadership of sax man Eddie Shaw, for a number of years.

Everyone on the Chicago blues scene knew Detroit Junior. He was the irrepressible little guy standing behind a battered piano, shouting out blues tunes in his scratchy, too-many-cigarettes-and-too-much-whiskey voice. And when the music got good to him, he might drop to his knees and crawl under the piano, playing his solo with only his hands visible. His piano, voice and antics were featured in a dozen bands, especially those of Howlin’ Wolf and Eddie Shaw, beginning in 1980 he established his own recording career. Junior cut four songs for Alligator Records' Living Chicago Blues series, including his opus "If I Hadn't Been High."  He began touring Europe quite often, staging on the main blues festivals and recordings several good albums. Turn Up the Heat appeared in 1995 on Blue Suit Records, followed by two more albums for the label, Take Out the Time (1997) and Live at the Toledo Museum of Art (2004). Another Detroit Junior album was also released in 2004, Blues on the Internet on Delmark Records.

As the blues scene expanded onto Chicago's North Side, Junior appeared at clubs like Kingston Mines and B.L.U.E.S. He remained an energetic live performer into his seventies, known for standing up from the bench to shout punchlines and engage the crowd, even as health problems mounted. Although he slowed down a little after he lost a leg to diabetes (which no one who saw him on stage ever knew), when he was up there pounding the piano and half-singing, half-talking his original songs, he pumped out the energy of a man half his age. And he kept writing those terrific, hilarious songs right up until his death from kidney failure on August 9, 2005, leaving a legacy as one of the city’s most colourful and enduring blues pianists, a bridge between the golden age of Chicago blues and the modern scene.

(Edited from Alligator Records, AllMusic & Earwig Records)