Joe Williams born 12 December 1918

Joe Williams (December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was an American jazz singer.

 

Williams was born Joseph Goreed in Cordele, Georgia, the son of Willie Goreed and Anne Beatrice née Gilbert; when he was about three his mother and grandmother took him to Chicago. He grew up on the South Side of Chicago, where he attended Austin Otis Sexton Elementary School and Englewood High School. In the 1930s, as a teenager, he was a member of a gospel group, the Jubilee Boys, and performed in Chicago churches. 

He worked as a singer and bouncer in Chicago in the late 1930s and early 1940s. He began singing professionally as a soloist in 1937. He sometimes sang with big bands: from 1937 he performed with Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, and also toured with Les Hite in the Midwest.In 1941 he toured with Coleman Hawkins to Memphis, Tennessee.

In 1943 he performed in Boston with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. He toured with Hampton for several years but never achieved breakthrough success.[citation needed] He sang with Red Saunders at the Club DeLisa in Chicago in 1945, and in 1946 was in New York with Andy Kirk.

In the late 1940s Williams was ill and performed little. By October 1950 he was again at the Club DeLisa with Red Saunders, where Count Basie heard him.

From 1954 to 1961 he was the singer for the Count Basie Orchestra. He rose to national prominence with Basie, who nicknamed him "The Number One Son". "Every Day I Have the Blues", recorded in 1955, was one of his many hit recordings.

 

 

 

   After leaving the Basie band, Williams had a successful career as a soloist at festivals, in clubs and on television. He and Basie remained on good terms and he regularly appeared with the Basie orchestra. He toured and made recordings with many other musicians, including Harry "Sweets" Edison in 1961–62, Junior Mance between 1962 and 1964, George Shearing in 1971, and Cannonball Adderley between 1973 and 1975.  

He went on a long tour from Egypt to India with Clark Terry in 1977, and toured Europe and the United States with Thad Jones and the Basie Orchestra in 1985. He also worked with his own combos, which between 1970 and 1990 usually included the pianist Norman Simmons, and often had Henry Johnson on guitar. 

Williams sang with the Basie orchestra in two films, Jamboree in 1957 and Cinderfella in 1960. He sometimes worked as an actor, and in 1985 took the rôle of "Grandpa Al" Hanks in Bill Cosby's popular Cosby Show. Williams appeared several times on Sesame Street in the 1980s and early 1990s. 

In later life Williams often worked in hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, but also sang at festivals and worked on cruise ships. He toured again with the Basie Orchestra, this time under the direction of Frank Foster, who had succeeded Thad Jones as leader of the band. Williams sang with the former Ellington Orchestra drummer Louie Bellson in Duke Ellington's jazz suite Black, Brown and Beige; in about 1993 or 1994 he again toured with George Shearing. 

Williams worked regularly until his death in Las Vegas on March 29, 1999, at the age of 80. 

His 1955 recording of "Every Day I Have the Blues" with Basie was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame for recordings of particular historical or qualitative importance in 1992. Williams was added to the Jazz Wall of Fame of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2001.  (Info Wikipedia)

Joe Williams sings an old chestnut from his Count Basie days at the Ella Awards in December of 1990. At the end of the evening, all the singers plus honoree Frank Sinatra join in a reprise of the tune. Fantastic.

Count Basie born 21 August 1904

William "Count" Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer.

Commonly regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular groups for almost fifty years. Many notable musicians came to prominence under his direction, including saxophonist Lester Young and singers Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams. Basie's theme songs were "One O'Clock Jump" and "April In Paris." "Every Day I Have The Blues" (1955), sung by the deep-voiced Williams, was also a major hit.

William James Basie was born on August 21,1904 in Red Bank, New Jersey to Harvey Lee Basie and Lillian Ann Childs, who lived on Mechanic Street. His father worked as coachman for a wealthy family. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several families in the area. His mother took in laundry, and was Bill Basie's first piano teacher when he was a child. He started out to be a drummer, but the obvious talents of another young Red Bank drummer, Sonny Greer (who was Duke Ellington's drummer from 1919 to 1951), discouraged young Basie and he switched to piano. While he was in his late teens, he gravitated to Harlem, where he met Fats Waller who taught him how to play organ. 

Basie toured the Keith circuit before the age of 20 and later the Columbia Burlesque and the Theater Owners Bookers Association (T.O.B.A.) vaudeville circuits starting in 1924 as a soloist, accompanist to blues singers Katie Krippen and Gonzelle White and music director for various acts.His touring took him to Kansas City, Missouri, where he met many jazz musicians in the area. In 1928 he joined Walter Page's Blue Devils, and the following year became the pianist with the Bennie Moten band based in Kansas City. It was at this time that he began to be known as "Count" Basie.

He started his own band in 1934, but eventually returned to Moten's band. After Moten died in 1935, the band unsuccessfully attempted to stay together. Basie formed a new band, which included many Moten alumni.

At the end of 1936, Bill Basie moved his band from Kansas City; they honed their repertoire at a long engagement at a Chicago club. In that city in October 1936, members of the band participated in a recording session which producer John Hammond later described as "the only perfect, completely perfect recording session I've ever had anything to do with". By the end of 1936 they began playing in New York City, where the Count Basie Orchestra remained until 1950. 

Basie’s music was characterized by his trademark "jumping" beat and the contrapuntal accents of his own piano. Basie also showcased some of the best blues singers of the era: Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Big Joe Turner, Helen Humes, and Joe Williams. More importantly, Count Basie was a highly successful bandleader who was able to hold onto some of the greatest jazz musicians of the 1930s and early 1940s: Buck Clayton, Reunald Jones, Herschel Evans, Lester Young, and the band's brilliant rhythm section, including Walter Page, Freddie Green, and Jo Jones. He was also able to hire great arrangers who knew how to accentuate the band's abilities, such as Eddie Durham and Jimmy Mundy.

The big band era appeared to be at an end, but Basie reformed his as a 16-piece orchestra in 1952 known as his 'New Testament' group. This had brilliant arrangements by Neal Hefti, Buster Harding and Ernie Wilkins, plus a new breed of soloist who combined bebop ideas with a sense of blues and swing. Star sidemen included trumpeters Joe Newman and Thad Jones, and saxophonists Eddie 'Lockjaw' Davis, Frank Foster and Frank Wess. With this band Basie continued to be one of the most influential and popular of all bandleaders right up until the time of his death. He toured constantly, made classic albums with several singers, including Tony Bennett and Sarah Vaughan, but his finest vocal discs feature the band's original Kansas City blues shouter JimmyRushing, or his post-war equivalent, the urbane Joe Williams.

Bill Basie died of pancreatic cancer in Hollywood, Florida on April 26, 1984 at the age of seventy-nine. (info edited from Wikipedia & BBC Jazz Profiles)