From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Wed Oct 8, 2003  1:17 am
 
CLARENCE WILLIAMS (By Phil Davies)

Born 8 October, 1898, Plaquemine near New Orleans, Louisiana.

Died 6 November 1965, Queens, New York City, New York


Clarence was of Choctaw Indian and Creole heritage. His father was a bass
player who made his living as a hotel owner, and as a child, Williams began his
musical education performing in the family hotel and singing in the streets.
When he was twelve, he left home and joined Billy Kersands's famous minstrel
show as a singer. Shortly thereafter, he became the troupe's master of
ceremonies. On Williams's return to New Orleans, he started a suit- cleaning
service for the many style-conscious piano professors in that city. He began
playing piano in the honky-tonks of New Orleans's Storyville.

Clarence Williams was both an artist and an entrepreneur. Highly energetic and
adept at all sides of the music business from writing, publishing and
performing to managing other artists, he worked with the most famous early
female blues singer Bessie Smith. The songs he wrote were popular across the
United States; some of his compositions in the Dixieland style have become
classics. He invested much of his time in learning new material, even writing
to New York for the latest songs. During this period, he also managed his own
cabaret, and wrote his first money-making composition, "Brownskin, Who You
For?" recorded on Columbia Records. The $1,600 check he received for it in 1916
was, according to Williams, the most money anyone in New Orleans had ever made
for a song. Around 1915, he and Armand Piron started a New Orleans-based
publishing company, which was in business for several years. Piron was a
bandleader whose most famous composition was "I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My
Sister Kate". In 1917, he and Williams put together a vaudeville act, while
touring, they became acquainted with W. C. Handy, who helped them place some of
their compositions in Memphis music stores. When an important concert in
Atlanta was moved from a black auditorium to a white one because so many whites
wanted to attend, Handy asked the duo to join him to strengthen the program. 

The concert was a triumph, and the New Orleans duo stopped the show. About this
time, Williams claimed to be the first songwriter to use the word jazz on a
piece of sheet music, and his business card began touting him as "The
Originator of Jazz and Boogie Woogie." In 1921, Williams married blues singer
Eva Taylor. She was one of the first female Blues singers heard on the radio,
and her performances and style influenced many future vocal stars. Among the
songs she and her husband collaborated on and performed together was "May We
Meet Again," written "in memory of our beloved Florence Mills," one of the most
popular black stage entertainers of the time. Williams understood the potential
selling-power of New Orleans music in the North, and since New York City was
the centre of the music publishing business, he sold his Chicago music stores
in 1923 and moved there. In February of that year, he and Bessie Smith went to
Columbia to record her first sides. The first two releases featured Smith
accompanied by Williams on piano; one, "Gulf Coast Blues", was even composed by
Williams and published by his company. Williams accompanied Smith on many of
the songs she recorded during that highly productive year and claimed writer's
credit on such numbers as "Baby Won't You Please Come Home"and "Tain't Nobody's
Bizness If I Do".It should be noted, however, that Williams had a reputation
for claiming credit for works he did not compose entirely on his own, and the
origins of many of these songs remain in question. He was also less than honest
with the singer. He convinced Smith that she was under contract to Columbia. In
reality, she had signed a contract naming him as her manager, and he was
pocketing half of her recording fee. This episode came to a swift conclusion
when Smith and a boyfriend made a surprise trip to Williams's office, demanding
that she be released from that obligation and allowed to sign directly with
Columbia. 

Not all of his activities were so self-serving. Willie" The Lion" Smith who
claimed that Williams was the first New Orleans musician to influence jazz in
New York, also credited Williams with helping other African-American
songwriters like himself and Fats Waller. From 1923 to 1928, Williams was the
artist and repertoire director for Okeh Records, and from this powerful
position he was able to seek out and develop new talent. During this time, he
organized numerous sessions which advanced the careers of many early jazz
greats such as Satchmo and Sidney Bechet. 

A shrewd businessman, Williams was in a position to help new artists in many
ways. He could arrange their recording sessions, supply their material, publish
their compositions and manage their business affairs. He was also capable of
taking advantage of the unknowing performer and did so, probably with the same
regularity as white agents, who were not known for their even-handed dealings
with artists regardless of their race. Between 1923 and 1937, Williams proved
to be a prolific producer, organizing at least two recording sessions a month
and recording over 300 sides under his own name. 

In 1927, Williams tried his hand at musical theatre. He wrote the book and
music for and also produced the show "Bottomland," which starred his wife, the
show was not a critical success. However, Williams's New York publishing
company prospered, continuing to do business until 1943 when he sold its
catalogue of over 2,000 songs to Decca for a reputed $50,000. From the late
thirties until he lost his sight after being hit by a cab in 1956, Williams
spent most of his time composing. He died in Queens, New York on November 6,
1965. During his lifetime, he had been a composer, pianist, vocalist, record
producer, music publisher and agent. He may not have been the inventor of jazz,
but he was influential enough in his day to be forgiven that one exaggeration.


Recommended Reading -"From Cakewalks to Concert Halls : An Illustrated History
of African-American Popular Music, From 1895-1930", by Thomas L Morgan &
William Barlow