Clarence Williams

Although Clarence Williams displayed abundant energy on jug, he also distinguished himself as a songwriter, penning or sharing credit on numerous enduring tunes such as "Royal Garden Blues," "Everybody Loves My Baby," "West End Blues," "Sugar Blues," "Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do," and "Baby Won't You Please Come Home." Beyond composition, he proved an astute organizer, overseeing dozens of lively sessions released under his own name throughout the 1920s and 1930s.

A shrewd entrepreneur and resourceful promoter, Williams took on varied work after relocating to New Orleans in 1906. There he performed piano in Storyville while staying attuned to current New York successes, served as singer, dancer, and emcee in a minstrel troupe, and operated his own cabaret. He additionally partnered with Armand J. Piroun to launch a modest publishing firm whose promise he quickly recognized. After a move to Chicago, where he managed a music store, Williams settled in New York and built a thriving publishing operation. He created material, assembled star-studded ensembles to document it, and handled distribution of the resulting sheet music, each pursuit reinforcing the others. He also briefly managed select performers, among them Bessie Smith, whom he helped launch early in her career. Beginning in 1923 he worked as an A&R scout for Okeh Records and often backed blues vocalists at the piano.

An intriguing personality and one of the era’s most prosperous Black entrepreneurs, Clarence Williams possessed a keen eye for ability. Among the prominent classic jazz figures featured on his dates—many issued under the Blue Five or Blue Seven banners—were soprano saxophonist Sidney Bechet; trumpeters Louis Armstrong, Joe Smith, Bubber Miley, Tommy Ladnier, Louis Metcalf, King Oliver, Red Allen, and Ed Allen; trombonists Charles Irvis, Tricky Sam Nanton, and Jimmy Harrison; clarinetists Buster Bailey and Cecil Scott; flutist Albert Socarras; tenors Coleman Hawkins and Benny Waters; tuba player Cyrus St. Clair; drummer and washboard specialist Floyd Casey; pianists James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith; plus vocalist Eva Taylor, whom he wed in 1923. In a notable achievement, the Classics label has issued every recording Williams led across fourteen compact discs.

Though he stood at the peak of his influence in the early 1930s, Clarence Williams’s stature diminished as the decade progressed and swing dominated. After 1937 he appeared on only one further date—two titles cut in 1941—while concentrating on music’s commercial side. In 1943 he sold his catalog to Decca and opened a retail shop in Harlem. Severely hurt by a taxi in 1956, he died in 1965. Tom Lord’s 1976 bio-discography Clarence Williams provides a sense of the breadth of his achievements.