Featured In
ALBUMYou Are FreeJoe Williams
Albums by Joe Williams
ALBUMWhat Do You Know Joe? (with The Basie Orchestra)Joe Williams
ALBUMGreated Hits LiveJoe Williams
ALBUMThe Ultimate Jazz Archive 42: Vocalists, 1946-55 (3 of 4)Joe Williams
ALBUMMr. WilliamsJoe Williams
ALBUMTogether / Have a Good TimeJoe Williams & Harry "Sweets" Edison
ALBUMOne More for My BabyJoe Williams
ALBUMHaving the Blues Under a European SkyJoe Williams
ALBUMJazz Foundations, Vol. 45: Joe WilliamsJoe Williams
ALBUMHere's To LifeJoe Williams & The Robert Farnon Orchestra
ALBUMDuke Ellington: Black, Brown & BeigeJoe Williams, Clark Terry, Louie Bellson, Louie Bellson and His Orchestra & Maurice Press
Joe Williams's Popular Music Videos
Old Man River
Count Basie, Snooky Young, Frank Wess, Joe Williams, Joe Newman, Eddie Jones, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne & Morgan Lewis
Midnight Sun Never Sets
Count Basie, Snooky Young, Frank Wess, Joe Williams, Joe Newman, Eddie Jones, Freddie Green, Sonny Payne & Morgan Lewis
Roll 'Em Pete (Live On The Ed Sullivan Show, November 22, 1959)
Count Basie & Joe Williams
Sometimes I'm Happy
Joe Williams & George Shearing
Artist Playlists
Joe Williams Essentials
The definitive template for the male jazz singer.
Joe Williams: Deep Cuts
His world-class jazz pipes aged like fine wine.
Artist Biography
Joe Williams’s hickory-smoked croon could convey the bluest blues and the sweetest joys, a flexibility that served him well as the lead singer of Count Basie’s band in the 1950s. At a time when Basie was at a low commercial ebb, Williams’s presence rejuvenated the live act. The singer also had a charting solo hit with Memphis Slim’s “Everyday I Have the Blues,” certainly one of the more popular renditions of the oft-covered standard. In the ‘60s Williams worked mostly as a solo artist, often accompanied by top-flight jazzmen, including Harry Edison, Clark Terry, and Cannonball Adderley. He continued to tour until his death in 1999.
Hometown
Cordele, GA, United States
Genre
Jazz