JOE WILLIAMS (1981) Chicago Jazz Festival | Jazz | Live Concert | Full Album

Live performance by Joe Williams at the Chicago Jazz Festival in Sept. 1981. Joe performed this set and also played separately with the Count Basie Big Band at this festival.

Hats off to Mark Rabin in Maryland for providing this high quality FM concert recording and the PDF copy of the program. Broadcast on WBEZ 91.5 Chicago Public Radio, on the the nationally syndicated Jazz Alive program, hosted by Billy Taylor & Ben Sidran.

Joe Williams (born Joseph Goreed; December 12, 1918 – March 29, 1999) was an American jazz singer. He sang with big bands such as the Count Basie Orchestra and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra and with his combos. He sang in two films with the Basie orchestra and sometimes worked as an actor.


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Publication date: 1981-09
Topics: Joe Williams, Chicago Jazz Festival, WBEZ, Jazz Alive, Billy Taylor, live concert, FM broadcast
Language: English

01. Billy Taylor, Ben Sidran and audience chat
02. Joe Williams Introduction
03. You Can Depend on Me
04. Sawmill Blues
05. Who She Do
06. Ain't Got Nothin' but the Blues
07. All Blues/In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)
08. Comments from Billy Taylor and Joe Williams


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 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.

Joe Williams at the Palo Alto Jazz Festival in September 1986
From 1954 to 1961 he was the singer for the Count Basie Orchestra.

"Every Day I Have the Blues", recorded in 1955, and "Alright, Okay, You Win" were among many successful recordings from this period.

After leaving the Basie band, Williams had a successful career as a soloist at festivals, in clubs and on television. He and Basie remained on good terms and he regularly appeared with the Basie orchestra.

He toured and made recordings with many other musicians, including Harry "Sweets" Edison in 1961–62, Junior Mance between 1962 and 1964, George Shearing in 1971, and Cannonball Adderley between 1973 and 1975.

He went on a long tour from Egypt to India with Clark Terry in 1977, and toured Europe and the United States with Thad Jones and the Basie Orchestra in 1985.

He also worked with his own combos, which between 1970 and 1990 usually included the pianist Norman Simmons, and often had Henry Johnson on guitar.

Williams sang with the Basie orchestra in two films, Jamboree in 1957 and Cinderfella in 1960. He sometimes worked as an actor, and he had a supporting role in the movie The Moonshine War released in 1970 from a story by Elmore Leonard starring Patrick McGoohan, Richard Widmark, Alan Alda and Will Geer.

In 1985 he played the role of "Grandpa Al" Hanks on The Cosby Show over 4 episodes as Cosby's father-in-law. Williams appeared several times on Sesame Street in the 1980s and early 1990s.

In 1982 Joe played the part of a famous jazz musician, Sonny Goodman, in an episode ("Jazz") of the newspaper series, Lou Grant.

In later life Williams often worked in hotels and clubs in Las Vegas, but also sang at festivals and worked on cruise ships. He toured again with the Basie Orchestra, this time under the direction of Frank Foster, who had succeeded Thad Jones as leader of the band. Williams sang with the former Ellington Orchestra drummer Louie Bellson in Duke Ellington's jazz suite Black, Brown and Beige; in about 1993 or 1994 he again toured with George Shearing.

Williams worked regularly until his death in Las Vegas on March 29, 1999, at the age of 80. He had been hospitalized the week before for a respiratory ailment, though the death was of natural causes.


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