In his “Jazz In Unusual Places” presentation at the IAJRC-UK get-together weekend at the Holiday Inn, Reading South, on September 20/21, Max Easterman played “Swingy Little Thingy” by The Broadway Brothers (“Duettists at the piano”), Parlophone R 1667, recorded in London in 1933. Max mentioned that Spencer Williams, the pianist and composer, who was living in England at the time, was a suspect.
The brief reference to Williams prompted a memory of his association with the clarinettist and leader Harry Parry and the BBC’s Radio Rhythm Club. Seeking to prove my memory was correct led from one source to another and took me a little further afield than planned, as these notes will show.
Spencer Williams was born in New Orleans, October 14, 1889, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He died in Flushing New York, July 14, 1965. He was a pianist but will be remembered for his compositions. His headed notepaper in 1947 listed 85 including such standards as “Arkansas Blues,” “Basin Street Blues,” “Everybody Loves My Baby,” “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None o’ this Jellyroll”-1, “I Found A New Baby,” “Mahogany Hall Stomp,” “Royal Garden Blues”-1, “Shimme-Sha-Wabble,” “Squeeze Me”-2, “Tishomingo Blues,” “When Lights Are Low”-3.
(-1, with Clarence Williams; -2 with Fats Waller; -3 with Benny Carter). The list also includes “Careless Love” and “She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain.” It seems that Williams liked to tell a good story rather than the whole truth and the provenance of many songs from the 1920s and 1930s is in dispute, but if he wrote only half those given above, then his portfolio is one to be envied.
[Wikipedia gives his birthplace as Vidalia, Louisiana, which is about 170 miles north of New Orleans.]
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The main biographical article about Williams was written by Jeffrey P. Green and appeared in Storyville 123, February-March 1986. A later source is a long article on ragpiano.com, from which a few family dates have been taken. It includes an article from Billboard for May 5, 1951, in addition to a number of photographs and sheet music covers, and also suggests that Williams wrote or collaborated on about 500 compositions.
Chilton tells us that Spencer worked in Europe between 1925 and 1928. Feather says he wrote for Josephine Baker at the Folies Bergeres.
In 1931, back in New York, he was accused, and acquitted, of the murder of one Hal Bakay (Baquet). (Bakay was the brother of clarinettists George and Achille Bacquet.) Jeffrey Greene quotes The Melody Maker for January 1932 for this news but a search of this issue by Lily Ashley at the National Jazz Archive failed to find it. Shortly after, in 1932, he and Fats Waller, competing drinkers, went on vacation to Paris. Holiday over, Williams moved to England, staying there for nearly twenty years.
Spencer Williams married Agnes Muir Bage on January 9, 1936. Agnes was born October 1, 1909. Her sister was Ethel and they danced and sang as the Castleton Sisters. While in Paris, Ethel met a Swedish musician and eventually moved to Stockholm with him, with Agnes joining them.
The letter on headed notepaper, reproduced with the Storyville article, gives the Williams’ address as Kornerief, Lower Hampton Road, Sunbury-on-Thames, Middlesex. (Listed as Karnerief in the 1939 register.) In the letter, dated August 22, 1947, and addressed to Joe Davis, the music publisher, Williams is seeking funds to enable him to return to the U.S.A. A September concert programme refers to “Prior to his return to the U.S.A.” but it was to be several years before he did so.
He appeared on or was paid tribute to on the BBC’s Radio Rhythm Club, as listed in the Radio Times, as follows:
May 2, 1944 (20:30) General Forces Programme. Spencer Williams in “Reminiscence of a Jazzman, Chicago 1909-1923,” written by Denis Preston.
April 20, 1945 (18:00) General Forces Programme. “Foundation of Jazz No. 2” Written by Denis Preston, introduced by Spencer Williams, piano by Dick Katz.
August 17, 1945 (18:30) Light Programme. “Masters of Jazz 4, Jelly Roll Morton” Written by Max Jones, narrated by Spencer Williams and Denis Preston.
April 20, 1946 (18:00) Light Programme. “Request Session” by Duncan Whyte, his Trumpet & his Rhythm. Guests Spencer Williams and Judy Johnson.
April 27, 1946 (18:00) Light Programme. “Jazz Forum” with A.L. Lloyd, Spencer Williams, Stanley Dance. Chair: Denis Preston.
May 11, 1946 (18:00) Light Programme. “The Music of Huddie Ledbetter” Written by Max Jones, narrator Denis Preston, voice of Ledbetter, Spencer Williams.
July 7, 1951 (17:00) Light Programme. “The Music of Spencer Williams” played by Harry Gold & his Pieces of Eight, Betty Taylor, vocals, introduced by John Hooper.
November 23, 1957 (12:30) “The Music of Spencer Williams” played by Pee Wee Hunt’s band and the A.B.C. Dixieland Band. From Voice of America.
Known Spencer Williams’ compositions recorded by the Harry Parry Radio Rhythm Sextet are:
“Basin Street Ball” (Lamarr/Williams) vocals Benny Lee and Doreen Villiers,
London, March 27, 1942, Parlophone R2840
“Blues Around My Bed” (Williams) vocal Rita Marlow
London, November 11, 1942, Parlophone R2857
“Blue Train Blues” (Williams) vocal by Harry Parry
London, March 23, 1943, Parlophone R2873
“Basin Street Ball” was played by the Parry band on a Radio Rhythm Club broadcast. The lyric writer above was Benny Lamarr.
A digression: the Harry Parry Papers (scrapbooks, cuttings, photographs, etc) are on file at Bangor University (iss608@bangor.ac.uk).
Edwin S. Walker listed three titles in his collection (Storyville 124, April/May 1986) which he believed were collaborations between Williams and drummer Joe Daniels – Joe Daniels and his Hot Shots:
“Steppin’ Out To Swing” (Daniels/Williams) Parlophone F1776
“Rose Petals” (Daniels/Williams) Parlophone F1961
“Swing Is The Thing” (Daniels/Williams) Parlophone F1961
However, there seems to be a Mars Williams associated with Daniels, so this connection needs further investigation.
On September 17, 1947, Williams was the headliner of a “Coloured Jazz Concert” at the Town Hall, Birmingham. See reproduction of programme, courtesy of Per Oldaeus.
Spencer and Agnes adopted two black girls in UK, one of them being Linda. She refused to talk about Spencer. However, ragpiano.com says that Agnes gave birth to both children, Linda in 1943 and Virginia Delia on March 24, 1945.
Williams moved to Sweden, probably in 1951, living with his wife in Stockholm, until returning to New York in 1957. An article about this period, by Per Oldaeus, in Swedish, appeared in Orkester Journalen, No. 1, Feb-Mar, 2009.
Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to Max Easterman for starting this, Trevor Bannister for delving into the BBC Archives, Per Oldaeus for Swedish data and the Birmingham concert programme, Howard Rye for family and other details.
And the usual reference works, including John Chilton and Leonard Feather.
Derek Coller, born in Devon, UK, in 1926, became a big band enthusiast as a teenager. His interest in jazz led to him becoming an author and jazz magazine editor. His recent biographies of Johnny Guarnieri and Big Joe Turner have been reviewed in The Syncopated Times.
