Claude "Fiddler" Williams (February 22, 1908 – April 25, 2004) was an American jazz violinist and guitarist who recorded and performed into his 90s. He was the first guitarist to record with Count Basie and the first musician to be inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
Claude Gabriel Williams was born in Muskogee, Oklahoma on February 22, 1908, the son of Lee J. Williams, a blacksmith, and Laura Williams, home maker. He was the youngest of six children.
Talented from a young age, Williams could play multiple instruments in his brother-in-law's string band: banjo, cello, guitar, mandolin. Their early band played outside, in hotels, and at barbershops around their hometown of Muskogee, Oklahoma and on a circuit up through Oklahoma City. At the time he'd make six to seven dollars for a night of playing. He commented that at this time people would work the whole week for about five or six dollars. At a concert in Muskogee he heard Joe Venuti play, and this inspired Williams to start playing jazz violin. In 1925, Williams married his first wife, Mabel. They had one son, Mark, and remained together until her death some 60 years later.
He went to Kansas City, Missouri in 1927 and became part of the Twelve Clouds of Joy, led by trumpeter Terrence Holder and then Andy Kirk, with Mary Lou Williams on piano. He recorded with them for Brunswick Records the following year. After leaving Kirk, he worked with Alphonso Trent (1932) played in Chicago in a band with Nat King Cole and his brother Eddie Cole and then became the first guitarist to record with Count Basie. As part of the Count Basie Orchestra, from 1936 – 1937), Claude Williams briefly enjoyed national fame.
He was voted "Best Guitarist of The Year" in a Downbeat national reader's poll. Claude now thanks Freddie Green for replacing him on guitar in the Basie Orchestra, saying that, "if I had stayed with Count, I would have just been playing that ching-ching rhythm guitar for forty years." At this time, Claude was also considered the top violinist in Kansas City, occasionally going head to head in nightly jam sessions with visiting fiddlers like Stuff Smith as well as several horn players including Ben Webster and Lester Young. But during the following decades he worked in obscurity as a guitarist in Michigan in the 1940’s and with Roy Milton’s band in the mid 50’s.Then back to Kansas City where he spent most of his life.
Here’s Fiddler’s Dream from above album
In the 1950s, he played with Eddie Vinson, Hank Jones, and another musician from Muskogee, pianist Jay McShann. For the next twenty years he led his own groups but did not record. He freelanced and led bands around Kansas City through the 1960’s and did brief stints in Denver and Las Vegas before his final return home in 1969. Nearly thirty years since his last recording, he reunited with McShann in the 1970s to record McShann's album Man From Muskogee. Williams performed at Bill's Le Gourmet in Wichita, Kansas from 1972-1977.
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| Claude with Stephane Grappelli |
1989 was a busy year for Claude as he married Blanche Fouse, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame and also performed in a tour called "Masters of the Folk Violin" and in the "Broadway Show Black and Blue." In the former, the finale featured a duet with Williams Krauss and Alison Krauss. At the time Alison was a 16-year-old fiddler and singer. In the 1990s, Williams performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and at the inauguration of President Bill Clinton. He was profiled on the TV program CBS News Sunday Morning and became the first person to be inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
Claude Williams died of pneumonia at his home in Kansas City on Sunday, April 26, 2004. He was the last surviving jazz musician to have recorded before 1930. His memorabilia was donated to the University of Missouri, Kansas City.
(Edited from Wikipedia, NPR Jazz profiles, Masters of Traditional Arts & New Grove Dictionary of Jazz)
