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Julian , Joe Pass, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughan, George Shearing, Renee Olstead, Amy Winehouse, Mindi Abair, Harry Connick, Jr., Billie Holiday, Joni Mitchell, George Benson, Miles Davis, Trey Anastasio, Tony Bennett, Louis Armstrong, Nancy Wilson (singer), Duke Ellington, Louis Prima, Lou Rawls, Billy Eckstine, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Hunter, Buddy Rich, Archie SheppMore Jazz Music...
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Joe Williams (December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was a well-known jazz vocalist, a baritone singing a mixture of blues, ballads, popular songs, and jazz standards.
Early lifeHe was born Joseph Goreed in the small farming town of Cordele, Georgia, on December 12, 1918
. His father, Willie Goreed, left the family early on, but Williams' mother, Anne Beatrice Gilbert, who was 18 when she had her only child, provided a strong emotional bond until her death in 1968. Soon after Williams was born, his mother moved them in with his grandparents, who had enough money to support an extended family. During this time, Anne Gilbert was saving for a move to Chicago. Once she had made the move — alone — she began saving the money that she earned cooking for wealthy Chicagoans so that her family could join her. By the time Williams was four, he, his grandmother, and his aunt had joined his mother in Chicago, where they would live for many years.
Probably most important to Williams' later life was the music scene — fueled largely by African-American musicians — that thrived in Chicago in the early 1920s. Years later, he recalled going to the Vendóme Theatre with his mother to hear Louis Armstrong play the trumpet. Chicago also offered a host of radio stations that featured the then-rebellious sounds of jazz, exposing Williams to the stylings of Duke Ellington, Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, Big Joe Turner, and many others. By his early teens, he had already taught himself to play piano and had formed his own gospel vocal quartet, known as "The Jubilee Boys", that sang at church functions.
During his mid-teens Williams began performing as a vocalist, singing solo at formal events with local bands. The most that he ever took home was five dollars a night, but that was enough to convince his family that he could make a living with his voice; so, at 16, he dropped out of school. After discussing it with his family, he began using the name "Williams" as a stage name, and he began marketing himself in earnest to Chicago clubs and bands. His first job was at a club called Kitty Davis's. Williams was allowed to sing with the band in the evening and keep the tips, which would sometimes amount to $20.
CareerWilliams had his first real break in 1938 when clarinet and saxophone player Jimmie Noone invited him to sing with his band. Less than a year later, the young singer was earning a reputation at Chicago dance halls and on a national radio station that broadcast his voice from Massachusetts to California. He toured the Midwest in 1939 and 1940 with the Les Hite band, which accompanied the likes of Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. A year later, he went on a more extensive tour with the band of saxophonist Coleman Hawkins.
In 1942, Lionel Hampton hired him to fill in for his regular vocalist, both for the Hampton orchestra's home performances at the Tic Toc Club in Boston and for their cross-country tours. Williams' work with Hampton ended when the band's former singer returned, but by that time Williams was in great demand, his fame particularly burgeoning back in Chicago. He got his big break in 1954, when he was hired as the male vocalist for with Count Basie Orchestra, 1954 through 1961, garnering some of the best exposure a blues and jazz singer could have. His first LP, Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, appeared in 1955, containing definitive versions of Memphis Slim's "Every Day I Have the Blues" (already his signature song) and "Alright, Okay, You Win." "Every Day" hit number two on the R&B charts, and sparked another LP—1957 The Greatest! Count Basie Swings/Joe Williams Sings Standards—spotlighting Williams' command of the traditional-pop repertory. After 1955, the Basie group stopped every year at the Newport Jazz Festival, one of the biggest events on the jazz calendar. In 1955, Williams won Down Beat magazine's New Star Award. That same year, he won Down Beat's international critics' poll for Best New Male Singer, as well as their readers' poll for Best Male Band Singer--citations he would continue to accumulate throughout his career. The years 1956, 1957, and 1959 also found the ensemble touring Europe, where the popularity of jazz had skyrocketed.
In the 1960s Williams worked mostly as a single, often accompanied by top-flight jazzmen, including Harry Edison, Clark Terry, George Shearing and Cannonball Adderley. In 1962 Williams sings along with Jimmy Rushing with Count Basie & His Orchestra at the Newport Jazz Festival. In 1971, he and pianist George Shearing collaborated on a recording, The Heart and Soul of Joe Williams. He became a familiar face on television, appearing on such variety programs as Johnny Carson's The Tonight Show, Steve Allen, Joey Bishop, Merv Griffin, and Mike Douglas shows. Williams gained further notoriety when Bill Cosby cast him as Heathcliff Huxtable's father-in-law "Grandpa Al" Hanks in a recurring role on the hit 1980s sitcom The Cosby Show.
Williams sang the lead in 1975 in Cannonball Adderley's musical play Big Man (based on the John Henry legend) in Carnegie Hall. Helped by his brother Nat Adderley, composed music for a full-blown, nearly-hour-long theater piece, which he called a "folk musical", the subject is John Henry, the mythical black hero.
Williams continued to perform regularly at jazz festivals, both in the U.S. and aboard, as well as on the nightclub circuit. Williams had performed at the legendary Monterey Jazz Festival 12 times, spanning from 1959 thru 1993, sharing the stage with jazz greats such as Sarah Vaughan, Dianne Reeves, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson, Miles Davis, Cal Tjader, Carmen McRae, Herbie Hancock, Nat Adderley, and Dizzy Gillespie. During the 1980s Williams appeared at Chicago's, Playboy Jazz Festival ten times.
He was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1983, next to Basie's. When Basie died in 1984, Williams sang a rendition of Duke Ellington's "Come Sunday" at his funeral. In 1985, Williams received a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocalist for the album I Just Want to Sing. In 1991 Williams attended his own gala tribute, "For the Love of Joe", which celebrated the contribution that he had made and was still making to music. In 1992, he won his second Grammy Award, for the release Ballad and Blues Master—"I Just Want to Sing." In 1997, Williams sang a duet with Nancy Wilson during the opening show of the San Francisco Jazz Festival, singing the song "You're Too Good to Be True."
Williams enjoyed a successful career and worked regularly until his death. He died at age 80, March 29, 1999 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He is buried at Palm Valley View Memorial Park in
Las Vegas, Nevada.
Awards, recognitions and legacyGrammy Award
Grammy Hall of FameThe Grammy Hall of Fame was established by The Recording Academy's National Trustees in 1973 to honor recordings of "lasting qualitative or historical significance" that are at least 25 years old.
The Blues Foundation Awards
Honors
LegacyPrior to his death, Joe Williams, with his wife Jillean and some of his closest friends and collaborators, created the not-for-profit "Joe Williams Every Day Foundation". Its aim -- to provide support for music and musicians, especially those in jazz, and to create career opportunities for deserving young talent.
Selective discographyNotable Recordings
Copyright Citations
This article is licensed under the GNU License
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