Clarence Williams was one of the busiest African-American music publishers of the 1920s. He played piano, sang, led a dizzying assortment of jazz, hokum, and washboard bands, accompanied dozens of aspiring blues singers (most famously Bessie Smith) and helped young Fats Waller to establish himself as both songwriter and performer. During the 1990s, John R.T. Davies supervised a series of Clarence Williams reissue collections, providing the world with immaculately remastered recordings that allow for a fair and unbiased ...
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Clarence Williams was one of the busiest African-American music publishers of the 1920s. He played piano, sang, led a dizzying assortment of jazz, hokum, and washboard bands, accompanied dozens of aspiring blues singers (most famously Bessie Smith) and helped young Fats Waller to establish himself as both songwriter and performer. During the 1990s, John R.T. Davies supervised a series of Clarence Williams reissue collections, providing the world with immaculately remastered recordings that allow for a fair and unbiased assessment of the music at hand. Volume three covers a timeline extending from February 1929 to November 1930. Bearing Fats Waller in mind, it is worth noting that during this period Williams employed three musicians who had made history as members of Fats Waller & His Buddies at a recording session that almost didn't happen on March 1, 1929 (for a very funny and accurate account of that gin-soaked, hair-raising adventure, see Eddie Condon's autobiography We Called It Music). The players in question were reedman Arville Harris, trumpeter Charlie Gaines, and trombonist Charlie Irvis. These were three of Harlem's best session men; they sounded great with Waller and Condon on the "Minor Drag" and "Harlem Fuss," and they sound wonderful here with Clarence Williams' Orchestra and the Clarence Williams Washboard Band. Other outstanding participants were cornetist Ed Allen, trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist Geechie Fields, clarinet and alto sax men Buster Bailey, Prince Robinson, and Russell Procope, pianists James P. Johnson and Herman Chittison; banjoists Leroy Harris and Ikey Robinson, guitarist Lonnie Johnson, tuba wrestler Cyrus St. Clair, and washboard wizard Floyd Casey. Any time you hear somebody huffin' on a jug, that's Clarence Williams. "You've Got to Give Me Some" and "I've Got What It Takes" are sung by Margaret Webster, and Williams' wife Eva Taylor is the vocalist responsible for "Shout, Sister Shout!" and "Where That Ol' Man River Flows." Clarence Williams loved to sing, probably more than people appreciated hearing him do so, and his sense of humor could be coarse. He grew up on vaudeville entertainment, but he also never fully grew up. Williams' penchant for numbers with titles like "You're Bound to Look Like a Monkey When You Get Old" caused him to record that song on numerous occasions, not least because he was the tune's publisher. Several of the instrumentals qualify as examples of the Clarence Williams band at its finest, including "Sitting on Top of the World," the "Kansas City Man Blues," "Whip Me with Plenty of Love," "High Society," and "Whoop It Up." ~ arwulf arwulf, Rovi
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