Clarence Williams

The pianist and composer Clarence Williams (1898-1965) was born near New Orleans and began his musical career as a singer with a minstrel troupe. He later teamed up with the New Orleans violinist Armand Piron; the two founded a music publishing company, and also a successful performing duo. Williams moved to Chicago in 1920, and then to New York in 1923, where he did a celebrated series of recordings with the singer Bessie Smith. Williams was unsuccessful writing for the Broadway stage, but enjoyed a great deal of success as a record producer, recording artist, composer, and music publisher. Harlem Rhythm Dance, an early swing tune harking back to the Charleston rhythms of a decade earlier, was written in New York in the early thirties.

Notes by Roy Wiseman