William Ezell
| William Ezell | |
|---|---|
| Also known as | Will Ezell |
| Born |
December 23, 1892 Brenham, Texas, United States |
| Died | August 2, 1963 (aged 70) Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Genres | Blues, jazz, ragtime, boogie-woogie |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist, songwriter, singer |
| Instruments | Piano |
| Years active | 1910s–1940s |
| Labels | Paramount |
William Ezell (December 23, 1892 – August 2, 1963), was an American blues, jazz, ragtime and boogie-woogie pianist and occasional singer, who was also billed as Will Ezell. He regularly contributed to recordings made by Paramount Records in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Ezell was noted by the music journalist Bruce Eder as "a technically brilliant pianist, showing the strong influence of jazz as well as blues in his work".
Ezell's "Pitchin' Boogie" and Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Blues" were amongst the earliest boogie-woogie recordings. However, Pinetop Smith's "Pinetop's Boogie-Woogie" was the first to use the phrase in the title of a song.
Two of Ezell's more notable solo recordings, "Heifer Dust" and "Barrel House Woman" (both 1929), have been noted for containing "elements of both blues and barrelhouse boogie-woogie in their form".
Ezell was born in Brenham, Texas, United States, one of six children to Lorenza Ezell, a farm laborer, and his wife Rachel. According to the 1900 United States Census, the family were still living in Brenham. The same source showed that Ezell's mother had died at some point between 1901 and 1910. Ezell found loose employment as a barrelhouse pianist and, by 1917, had relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana, according to his draft record, and was working as a self-employed musician. There is no evidence that Ezell was conscripted at any time. He continued his itinerant work, finding employment at riverside sawmill camps in Louisiana and East Texas.
By the early 1920s, Ezell was working with the blues singer Elzadie Robinson. Around 1925, Ezell moved to Chicago, Illinois, and made friends with Blind Blake and Charlie Spand. Ezell, along with others such as Spand, was one of the boogie-woogie pianists who, in the 1920s, performed on Brady Street and Hastings Street in Detroit, Michigan. By 1926, Ezell started work for Paramount in Chicago, as they provided regular work for black musicians, which was not always available elsewhere. There is some doubt as to his first recording, but he wrote "Sawmill Blues", which was recorded by Elzadie Robinson (under the pseudonym of Bernice Drake) in October that year. His flexibility in playing differing styles proved popular, and one of his earliest duties was accompanying Lucille Bogan on "Sweet Petunia", a song full of Bogan's trademark double entendres. There is evidence that Ezell and Bogan's relationship went beyond the recording studio, to the extent that Bogan's husband considered divorce proceedings.
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