Joe Williams (jazz singer)
| Joe Williams | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Joseph Goreed |
| Born |
December 12, 1918 Cordele, Georgia, U.S. |
| Died | March 29, 1999 (aged 80) Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, blues, swing, traditional pop |
| Occupation(s) | Singer |
| Labels | RCA Victor, Verve |
| Associated acts | Lionel Hampton, Count Basie |
Joe Williams (born Joseph Goreed; December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was an American jazz singer.
Williams was born in Cordele, Georgia, the son of Willie Goreed and Anne Beatrice née 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 worked as 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 also toured with Les Hite in the Midwest. In 1941 he toured with Coleman Hawkins to 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 with Red Saunders, where Count Basie heard him.
From 1954 to 1961 he was the singer for the Count Basie Orchestra. He rose to national prominence with Basie, who nicknamed him "The Number One Son". "Every Day I Have the Blues", recorded in 1955, was one of his many hit recordings.
...
Wikipedia