Biography
Willie Bryant's impact on music unfolded across two separate chapters, first as director of a skilled large ensemble between 1935 and 1938 and later as a familiar master of ceremonies and radio host throughout the 1950s. Raised in Chicago, he attempted without success to master the trumpet. He entered show business in 1926 as a dancer with the Whitman Sisters' Show, spent several years on the vaudeville circuit, appeared in the 1934 production Chocolate Revue, and joined Bessie Smith onstage for a performance of "Big Fat Ma and Skinny Pa." Late in 1934 he formed his big band, which completed six recording sessions over the next several years—five of them for Victor or Bluebird in 1935-36 and one final, little-noted date for Decca in 1938. Among the musicians who worked in the group during that span were pianist Teddy Wilson, drummer Cozy Cole, tenor saxophonist Johnny Russell, Benny Carter as a guest on trumpet, tenor saxophonist Ben Webster, trombonist and arranger Eddie Durham, pianist Ram Ramirez, and trumpeter-vocalist Taft Jordan. Bryant supplied vocals on 18 of the 26 recorded numbers yet left ample room for his accomplished players to solo. After he disbanded the orchestra he worked as an actor, emcee, and disc jockey. In 1945 he recorded several rhythm-and-blues vocals, most prominently "Blues Around The Clock" and a new version of his best-known composition, "It's Over Because We're Through." He led another big band from 1946 to 1948 that cut two sides and added four final tracks with a smaller group in 1949, yet achieved his greatest visibility in the 1950s as the regular emcee at the Apollo Theatre. He lived his last decade in California and died of a heart attack in 1964.