Joe Williams

Joe Williams stood as the final towering vocalist of the big-band era, his polished baritone lending elegance to the revived Count Basie Orchestra throughout the 1950s and drawing listeners well into the 1990s. Born in Georgia, he arrived in Chicago at age three in the company of his grandmother. Rejoined by his mother, she trained him on piano and escorted him to symphony concerts. Tuberculosis restricted his activities as a teenager, yet Williams sang at social occasions and organized the gospel quartet the Jubilee Boys.

By the close of the 1930s he had entered Chicago’s club circuit, performing with orchestras led by Jimmie Noone and Les Hite. In the early 1940s he appeared with Coleman Hawkins and Lionel Hampton, then toured with Andy Kirk & His Clouds of Joy in the mid-1940s, cutting his first record with that ensemble. Ongoing health problems limited further road work, so he took jobs as a theater doorman and door-to-door cosmetics salesman before scoring a modest success on Checker with the 1952 single “Every Day I Have the Blues.”

At thirty-five, Williams received his major break when Count Basie hired him as male vocalist in 1954. He quickly erased memories of longtime Basie singer Jimmy Rushing and became a star in his own right, helping restore the band’s fortunes. His debut album, Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings, arrived in 1955 and included definitive readings of “Every Day I Have the Blues,” already his signature tune, and “Alright, Okay, You Win.” The track reached number two on the R&B charts and led to the 1957 follow-up The Greatest! Count Basie Swings/Joe Williams Sings Standards, which showcased his mastery of classic pop material. While continuing to tour worldwide with Basie in the late 1950s, he issued his first solo-billed album on Regent in 1956 and recorded three more for Roulette.

After parting from Basie in 1961, Williams remained connected to the circle, first working in a small group with Basieite Harry “Sweets” Edison before forming his own quartet in 1962. For the 1963 RCA release Jump for Joy, the band included jazz figures Thad Jones, Clark Terry, Snooky Young, Kenny Burrell, Oliver Nelson, Urbie Green, and Phil Woods. Two further albums appeared that year, At Newport ’63 and Me and the Blues, followed by another career peak in 1966 with Presenting Joe Williams and the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra on Blue Note.

Consistent touring filled the 1970s even as recordings grew scarce, until the mid-1980s Delos albums Nothin’ But the Blues and I Just Wanna Sing. The former earned a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Vocal Performance, after which Williams took a recurring role on the television series The Cosby Show and signed with Verve.

Live dates at Vine St. supplied material for his first Verve projects, Every Night: Live at Vine St. and Ballad and Blues Master. Still in peak voice, he recorded two additional Verve albums, toured steadily through the 1990s, rejoined Count Basie’s Orchestra under Frank Foster’s direction, released several Telarc titles, and remained among the leading jazz vocalists until his death in 1999.