Joe Williams
*Joe Williams was born on this date in 1918. He was a Black jazz singer with big bands and with his combos and sometimes worked as an actor.
Born Joseph Goreed, he was from Cordele, Georgia, the son of Willie Goreed and Anne Beatrice 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. He was 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 Les Hite in the Midwest. In 1941, he toured with Coleman Hawkins in 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, where Count Basie heard him.
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 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 films, Jamboree in 1957 and Cinderfella in 1960. He sometimes worked as an actor and, in 1985, took the role of "Grandpa Al" Hanks in Bill Cosby's The Cosby Show. Williams appeared several times on Sesame Street in the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1982, he played the part of a famous jazz musician, Sonny Goodman, in an episode ("Jazz") of the newspaper series Lou Grant. He recorded Joe Williams at the Palo Alto Jazz Festival in September 1986. In later life, Williams often worked in hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, singing at festivals and working 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 1993 or 1994, he again toured with George Shearing. Joe Williams worked regularly until he died in Las Vegas on March 29, 1999, at 80.
