Joe Williams (jazz singer)

This article is about the jazz singer. For the Delta blues singer, see Big Joe Williams. For other people named Joe Williams, see Joe Williams (disambiguation).

Joe Williams
Williams in 1997
Background information
Birth name	Joseph Goreed
Born	(1918-12-12)December 12, 1918 Cordele, Georgia, U.S.
Died	March 29, 1999(1999-03-29) (aged 80) Las Vegas, Nevada
Genres	Jazz, blues, swing, traditional pop
Occupation(s)	Singer
Years active	1930s–1998
Labels	Roulette, RCA Victor, Verve, Telarc
Associated acts	Lionel Hampton, Count Basie

Joe Williams (born Joseph Goreed; December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was an American jazz singer. He sang with big bands such as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and with his combos. He sang in two films with the Basie orchestra and sometimes worked as an actor.

Life

Williams was born 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.

Work

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. 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.

Joe Williams at the Palo Alto Jazz Festival in September 1986

From 1954 to 1961 he was the singer for the Count Basie Orchestra. "Every Day I Have the Blues", recorded in 1955, and "Alright, Okay, You Win" were among many successful recordings from this period.

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 The 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.

Awards and honors

Williams won the Best Jazz Vocal Performance Grammy Award for his LP Nothin' but the Blues in 1984; it was also the winning Traditional Blues Album in the Blues Music Awards of the Blues Foundation in the following year. Williams was nominated for seven other Grammy awards: for Prez & Joe (1979); "8 to 5 I Lose" (1982); I Just Want To Sing (1986); Every Night: Live At Vine St. (1987); "I Won't Leave You Again" (with Lena Horne, 1988); "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby" (with Marlena Shaw, 1989); and In Good Company (1989).

In 1988, Williams received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music.

In 1992, 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. Williams was added to the Jazz Wall of Fame of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 2001.

In 1988, with his wife Jillean and friends, Williams set up the not-for-profit Joe Williams Every Day Foundation to offer scholarships to talented young musicians.

Discography

• Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings (Clef, 1955)
• The Greatest!! Count Basie Plays, Joe Williams Sings Standards (Verve, 1956)
• Sings Everyday (Regent, 1956)
• At Newport with Count Basie (Verve, 1958)
• A Man Ain't Supposed to Cry (Roulette, 1958)
• Memories Ad-Lib with Count Basie (Roulette, 1959)
• One O'Clock Jump with Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald (Verve, 1957)
• Everyday I Have the Blues with Count Basie (Roulette, 1959)
• Sings About You (Roulette, 1959)
• Just the Blues with Count Basie (Roulette, 1960)
• Joe Williams with Songs About That Kind of Woman (Roulette, 1960)
• Have a Good Time with Joe Williams (Roulette, 1961)
• Sentimental & Melancholy (Roulette, 1961)
• Together with Harry Sweets Edison (Roulette, 1961)
• A Swingin' Night at Birdland (Roulette, 1962)
• A New Kind of Love (Roulette, 1963)
• Jump for Joy (RCA Victor, 1963)
• At Newport '63 (RCA Victor, 1963)
• One Is a Lonesome Number (Roulette, 1963)
• We Three with Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington (EMUS, 1963)
• Me and the Blues (RCA Victor, 1964)
• The Song Is You (RCA Victor, 1965)
• Scat Man Crothers & Joe Williams (Pickwick, 1965)
• Presenting Joe Williams and Thad Jones Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (Solid State, 1966)
• The Exciting Joe Williams (RCA Victor, 1965)
• Alright, Okay (Verve, 1966)
• Something Old, New and Blue (Solid State, 1967)
• Worth Waiting For (Blue Note, 1970)
• The Heart and Soul of Joe Williams and George Shearing (Sheba, 1971)
• Joe Williams Live (Fantasy, 1973)
• In Celebration of Lester Young (GNP Crescendo, 1979)
• Nothin' but the Blues (Delos, 1984)
• Then and Now (Bosco, 1984)
• I Just Want to Sing (Delos, 1985)
• Having the Blues Under European Sky (Denon, 1985)
• Every Night: Live at Vine St. (Verve, 1987)
• In Good Company (Verve, 1989)
• That Holiday Feelin' (Verve, 1990)
• Ballad and Blues Master (Verve, 1992)
• Live at Orchestra Hall, Detroit (Telarc, 1993)
• Here's to Life (Telarc, 1994)
• Feel the Spirit (Telarc, 1995)

As guest

• Count Basie, A Night at Count Basie's (Vanguard, 1955)
• Count Basie, Breakfast Dance and Barbecue (Roulette, 1959)
• Count Basie, Sing Along with Basie with Lambert, Hendricks & Ross (Roulette, 1959)
• The Capp-Pierce Juggernaut, Live at the Century Plaza (Concord Jazz, 1978)
• Benny Carter, Benny Carter Songbook (MusicMasters, 1996)
• Benny Carter, Benny Carter Songbook Volume II (MusicMasters, 1997)
• Lena Horne, The Men in My Life (Three Cherries, 1988)
• Milt Jackson, The Prophet Speaks (Qwest, 1994)
• Marian McPartland, Piano Jazz with Joe Williams (Jazz Alliance, 1991)
• Diane Schuur, Pure Schuur (GRP, 1991)

Further reading

• Balliett, Whitney (1988). American Singers: Twenty-seven Portraits in Song. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195065732 Search this book on .. p. 72.
• Calloway, E. (April 28, 1990). "Defender Newsboy Joe Williams Grew up to be a Great Vocalist". The Chicago Defender p. 33.
• Crowther, B. (1999). [obituary]. Jazz Journal International 52 (5): 18
• Dance, Stanley (1980). The World of Count Basie. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. p. 198. ISBN 9780684166049. Search this book on
• Gardner, B. (1964). "Is Joe Williams Really Joe Williams?" Down Beat 31 (32): 19
• Gelb, H. (October 5, 1997). "Blues Singer Joe Williams Has Seen Hard Times, but Takes Solace from his Saviour: Joyful Noise". The San Francisco Examiner Magazine. p. 10.
• Gleason, R. J. (1956). Every Day is a Good Day for Joe Williams. Down Beat 23 (11): 11
• Gourse, Leslie (1985). Every Day: the Story of Joe Williams. London; New York: Quartet Books. ISBN 9780704324664 Search this book on ..
• Harris, Sheldon (1979) Blues Who's Who: a Biographical Dictionary of Blues Singers. New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House. ISBN 9780870004254 Search this book on ..
• Heckman, D. (March 31, 1999). [obituary]. Los Angeles Times
• Horricks, R. (1956). Joe Williams. Jazz Monthly 2 (7): 7
• Mitchell, R. (February 16, 1994). "Joe Williams Saves a Few of his High Notes". Houston Chronicle.
• Morgenstern, Dan (1987). "Joe Williams: the Boy Singer". JazzTimes (October): 36
• Sheridan, Chris (1986). Count Basie: a Bio-discography. New York: Greenwood Press. ISBN 9780313249358 Search this book on ..
• Siegel, J. E. (1980). "Talking with Joe Williams". Radio Free Jazz 21 (January): 12
• Smith, A. J. (1976). "Joe Williams: the Well Tempered Blaze of Vocal Excellence". Down Beat 43 (9): 11
• Tomkins, L. (1963). "Frankly Speaking: Joe Williams". Crescendo 1 (6): 10
• Travis, Dempsey J. (1983). An Autobiography of Black Jazz. Chicago, IL: Urban Research Institute. ISBN 9780941484039 Search this book on . p. 467.
• Williams, Joe (1980). "You and Me". Jazz Podium 29 (10): 12
• Zych, D. (1994). "Joe Williams: Celebrating Ev-e-ry-Day". Jazz Times 24 (2): 43
• [s.n.] (1988). Joe Williams. Jazz-Podium. 37 (7): 3

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