June 22, 1984(1984-06-22) (aged 68) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)
Jazz bassist, vocalist
Instrument(s)
Double bass
Years active
1935–1957
Labels
Onyx Records
Musical artist
Chocolate Williams (also known as Billy and Bob, néRobert Williams Jr.; February 1, 1916 – June 22, 1984)[1][2] was an American jazz bassist and vocalist based in New York City.[2] He was a prolific performer of jazz, and, notably, performed and recorded with
Art Tatum in 1941 and
Herbie Nichols in 1952.[3]
Selected career highlights
Williams performed with the
Cotton Club Tramp Band,
Rex Stewart Combo,
Herbie Nichols,
Art Tatum, his own trio, the Three Chocolates, and his own jazz combo, Chocolate Williams and His Chocolateers. Williams was the founding leader of The Three Chocolates.[a] The other two original members were guitarist
Jerome Darr(de), who went on to perform with
Jonah Jones, and pianist Bill Spotswood.[b] Throughout the 1940s and mid-fifties, The Three Chocolates played at clubs along the
Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest and were favorites in many swank Harlem
after-hour spots. In late 1943, The Three Chocolates performed at the
Onyx Club on
52nd Street for seven months, the Famous Door for five months, and, before that,
Kelly's Stables. Bassist
Earl May(de) (1926–2008), who substituted for Williams at
Minton's, succeeded him when he stopped playing there.[2][4]
Semi-retirement
After his semi-retirement in 1955, Chocolate Williams worked as a messenger for
CBS and retired in 1974.
Residences
He was born in
Augusta, Georgia in 1916, and lived there until at least 1930. Williams lived at 60 West 142nd Street in the
Sugar Hill area of
Harlem when he died in 1984.[5]
Selected extant discography
1940s
Art Tatum
Onyx ORI205 Art Tatum (piano, vocalist on tr 1), Chocolate Williams (bass on trs 2, 3, 5–8, vocalist on tr 2), Anna Robinson (vocalist on tr 5), Ethel White (vocalist on tr 6),
Charlie Shavers (vocalist on tr 6), Ollie Potter (vocalist on tr 8)
Recorded live July 26 or 27, 1941, at Gee-Haw Stables, New York City
1: "Mighty Lak' a Rose"
William (Willie) Benton Overstreet (1888–1935) (music)
Billy Higgins (né William Weldon Higgins; 1888–1937) (words)
(see note)
Chocolate Williams With
Brick Fleagle's Rhythmakers
Hot Record Society Records Records (HRS 1036) (1947)
Recorded May 5, 1947, New York City Billy Taylor (piano),
"Half Valve" (coronet),
Brick Fleagle (guitar), Chocolate Williams (bass), Jimmy Crawford (drums)
1065-1: "They'll Do It Every Time"
Chocolate Williams and His Chocolateers
Recorded March 6, 1952, New York City Herbie Nichols (piano),
Danny Barker (guitar), Chocolate Williams (bass, vocals),
Shadow Wilson (drums)
Hi-Lo Records 1402 (1952)
HL 311: "Lady Gingersnap" ("Lady Ginger Snaps")
Chocolate Williams (vocalist)
Ernie Washington (né Ernest Franklin Washington; 1926–1979) (w&m)
Joe Williams
Cincinnati Records 2300 (1944)
Recorded in Cincinnati, ca. November 1944
2300 A: (matrix QB3345): "'Round The Clock Blues" (part 1)
2300 B: (matrix QB3345): "'Round The Clock Blues" (part 2)
"Knockin' Myself Out", with Tatum on piano and Williams singing, refers to
reefer and its local supplier:
If you want to get high, get high kind of quick,
Just fall on up to the Gee-Haw
And pick up on old Frank Martin's sticks
"There'll Be Some Changes Made", was recorded in 1941 on
acetate discs by an amateur, a
Columbia Student, Jerry Newman (né Jerome Robert Newman; 1918–1970), and released in the 1973. Newman's collection was the initial sole material used to launch the jazz label, Onyx Recording, Inc. (aka Onyx Records), a New York entity co-founded in 1972 by
Don Schlitten and
Joe Fields.[6][7]
Newman,[c] while a student at
Columbia in 1941, lugged his
acetate disc recording machine – a portable
Wilcox-Gay Recordio "disc cutter" – to jazz clubs in
Harlem, including
Minton's Playhouse on 118th Street and
Clark Monroe's Uptown House on 134th Street, both of which were incubators of jazz of the day, and in 1941, the beginning of
bebop. Newman's collection has endured as the core library for Onyx Recording, Inc.
Art Tatum[8] at
Minton's in 1941, issued by Onyx after being declined by
Columbia, on the
LPGod Is in the House.[Discography 1] At the
16th Annual Grammy Awards held in March 1974, the album won two
Grammys, one for
Best Improvised Jazz Solo and one for
Best Liner Notes, written by
Morgenstern. Newman's recordings have been issued as unauthorized records, variously over the years, but none were done so with the permission or participation of the artists or their estates.[9] The commercial value of the recordings were deemed nil; and those who acquired and distributed the recordings viewed the mission as one of curating jazz history.
The
Art Tatum session at Gee-Haw Stables was the subject of a poem, "Art Tatum at the Gee-Haw Stables", by
Grace Schulman.[10]
(1st Verse)
Don't want no woman
That uses a straight comb
Don't want no woman
That uses a straight comb
She's ornery and evil
Can't keep a happy home
(2st Verse)
Looks in the mirror
Get mad when she sees her hair
Looks in the mirror
Get mad when she sees her hair
Can't blame her
'Cause its hardly any up there
(3rd Verse)
Ain't my fault
If she has bad hair
Ain't my fault
If she has bad hair
She may as well accept the fact
'Cause gettin' evil ain't nowhere
Piano solo
(12 bars)
(4th Verse)
Woman quit your squawkin'
Don't be so dumb
Woman quit your squawkin'
Don't be so dumb
If you don't like the hair you got
Go downtown and buy you some
Collaborators
Percy Brice (né Percy Austin Brice Jr.; born March 25, 1923, New York City)
(de), drummer, performed with Chocolate Williams after-hours at
Minton's from 1953 to 1954.[11]
Family
Among his survivors are: his son, Tony Davis; a sister, Alberta Bloomer, a niece, Jennifer Riley; a nephew and 15 grandnieces and nephews.[5]
Parents
Mother: Jennie (née Jennifer Scott), who was married to Robert Williams Sr., and, later, Edward Bolden
Father: Robert Williams Sr.
Nephew
Kimati Dinizulu (1956–2013) – the late American-born African percussionist and exponent of
Akan traditions in America – was a nephew of Chocolate Williams.[12]
Selected compositions
"Three Nickels and a Dime", Chocolate Williams (w&m), 1st copy December 16, 1944, Class E unpublished 401371, Chicago:
Mayo Music Corp[i]
"Three Chocolates" disambiguation
The Three Chocolates might wrongly associated with:
Three Chocolate Dandies, vocalists and dancers from the mid-1920s, which featured Albert Wilkins, Bennie Anderson, Fulton Alexander
The Chocolate Steppers, dancers from the early-1930s
The Three Chocolate Drops, dancers from the early-1930s
Three Chocolateers,
acrobatic danceers and vocalists, who, among other things, performed "Peckin'" in the 1937 film, New Faces of 1937; originally from the West Coast, but performed famously in Harlem, notably at the
Apollo Theater and
Cotton Club; possible original members: Al Bert "Gip" Gipson, Paul Black, known for his Chinese splits (straddling the floor as he walked), and Eddie West, with James Buster Brown replacing West for a short period of time[14]
Kid Chocolate, World Featherweight Champion boxer from Cuba
The Chocolateers (aka the Burbank Chocolateers), appeared on
WBZ (Boston) as early as May 1926
The Chocolateers, a baseball team sponsored by Hershey Chocolate of
Hershey, Pennsylvania, from as early as 1929
Garrott Chocolateers, a radio orchestra out of Pittsburgh (1929–1930), formerly Garrott's Chocolate Soldiers (musical comedy; on radio from 1926 to 1927)
Nestle Chocolateers, singers sponsored by the company, initially broadcast from Pittsburgh beginning September 5, 1930, running through 1934, and hosted by
Helen Morgan
Phil Kelly's Chocolateers, A basketball team from
Kingston, New York, in the early 1930s
George Dawson's Chocolateers, guitarist Dawson formed this Detroit group in 1935 as the house band at the Chocolate Bar in Detroit; They made a few recordings for Paradise Records in late 1947
Venues included The Plantation Club, which in the 1930s, was at 80 West 126th Street, in
Harlem
^William Spotswood (aka Willie or Williah Spottswood, aka Spotwood, né William Howard Spottswood Jr.; born around 1916 New York City), from about 1926 to about 1930, studied piano at the Martin-Smith School of Music (founded in 1916) in New York City; he was a co-composer – with
Leonard Ware, and Edward Robinson – originally uncredited, of "
Hold Tight;" they composed while performing it as a trio
^Bill Fox (aka Bill Mink, Bill Wolf/Wolfe), Jerry Newman, and Seymour Weiss (né Seymour Michael Wyse; born 1923 in London) founded the Esoteric Record Corporation in 1949 in New York. In 1957 the label was renamed Counterpoint; and after being first sold to Eichler Records Corporation in 1960, and then to Everest Record Group in 1963, to Counterpoint / Esoteric Records. Earlier, in 1948, Newman and Wyse founded Greenwich Music Shop. In 1964, Fox moved to
Vanguard Records, to become the production coordinator. Fox had been Newman's business partner with the Greenwich Music Shop
^
abc"Theatre Briefs", by Al Morris, Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 25
^"Knockin' Myself Out" (record review of an
Art Tatum release), by Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare, Vol. 32, No. 3, January 2009, pps. 372–373;
ISSN0148-9364 (accessible via publisher's archives and
EBSCO Accession # 35343569, both requiring a fee)
^"Earl May, Intuitive Bassist, Dies", by Ron Scott, New York Amsterdam News, January 10, 2008, pg. 35
^
ab"Robert 'Chocolate' Williams dies at 68", New York Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 24 (accessed April 8, 2016, via
ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
^Ancestral Spirits, Kamiti Dinizulu, record album liner notes by Salim Washington, Phd (né Michael Spence Washington; born 1958),
Queens, New York: African Room Music L.L.C. (2010)
June 22, 1984(1984-06-22) (aged 68) Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation(s)
Jazz bassist, vocalist
Instrument(s)
Double bass
Years active
1935–1957
Labels
Onyx Records
Musical artist
Chocolate Williams (also known as Billy and Bob, néRobert Williams Jr.; February 1, 1916 – June 22, 1984)[1][2] was an American jazz bassist and vocalist based in New York City.[2] He was a prolific performer of jazz, and, notably, performed and recorded with
Art Tatum in 1941 and
Herbie Nichols in 1952.[3]
Selected career highlights
Williams performed with the
Cotton Club Tramp Band,
Rex Stewart Combo,
Herbie Nichols,
Art Tatum, his own trio, the Three Chocolates, and his own jazz combo, Chocolate Williams and His Chocolateers. Williams was the founding leader of The Three Chocolates.[a] The other two original members were guitarist
Jerome Darr(de), who went on to perform with
Jonah Jones, and pianist Bill Spotswood.[b] Throughout the 1940s and mid-fifties, The Three Chocolates played at clubs along the
Eastern Seaboard and the Midwest and were favorites in many swank Harlem
after-hour spots. In late 1943, The Three Chocolates performed at the
Onyx Club on
52nd Street for seven months, the Famous Door for five months, and, before that,
Kelly's Stables. Bassist
Earl May(de) (1926–2008), who substituted for Williams at
Minton's, succeeded him when he stopped playing there.[2][4]
Semi-retirement
After his semi-retirement in 1955, Chocolate Williams worked as a messenger for
CBS and retired in 1974.
Residences
He was born in
Augusta, Georgia in 1916, and lived there until at least 1930. Williams lived at 60 West 142nd Street in the
Sugar Hill area of
Harlem when he died in 1984.[5]
Selected extant discography
1940s
Art Tatum
Onyx ORI205 Art Tatum (piano, vocalist on tr 1), Chocolate Williams (bass on trs 2, 3, 5–8, vocalist on tr 2), Anna Robinson (vocalist on tr 5), Ethel White (vocalist on tr 6),
Charlie Shavers (vocalist on tr 6), Ollie Potter (vocalist on tr 8)
Recorded live July 26 or 27, 1941, at Gee-Haw Stables, New York City
1: "Mighty Lak' a Rose"
William (Willie) Benton Overstreet (1888–1935) (music)
Billy Higgins (né William Weldon Higgins; 1888–1937) (words)
(see note)
Chocolate Williams With
Brick Fleagle's Rhythmakers
Hot Record Society Records Records (HRS 1036) (1947)
Recorded May 5, 1947, New York City Billy Taylor (piano),
"Half Valve" (coronet),
Brick Fleagle (guitar), Chocolate Williams (bass), Jimmy Crawford (drums)
1065-1: "They'll Do It Every Time"
Chocolate Williams and His Chocolateers
Recorded March 6, 1952, New York City Herbie Nichols (piano),
Danny Barker (guitar), Chocolate Williams (bass, vocals),
Shadow Wilson (drums)
Hi-Lo Records 1402 (1952)
HL 311: "Lady Gingersnap" ("Lady Ginger Snaps")
Chocolate Williams (vocalist)
Ernie Washington (né Ernest Franklin Washington; 1926–1979) (w&m)
Joe Williams
Cincinnati Records 2300 (1944)
Recorded in Cincinnati, ca. November 1944
2300 A: (matrix QB3345): "'Round The Clock Blues" (part 1)
2300 B: (matrix QB3345): "'Round The Clock Blues" (part 2)
"Knockin' Myself Out", with Tatum on piano and Williams singing, refers to
reefer and its local supplier:
If you want to get high, get high kind of quick,
Just fall on up to the Gee-Haw
And pick up on old Frank Martin's sticks
"There'll Be Some Changes Made", was recorded in 1941 on
acetate discs by an amateur, a
Columbia Student, Jerry Newman (né Jerome Robert Newman; 1918–1970), and released in the 1973. Newman's collection was the initial sole material used to launch the jazz label, Onyx Recording, Inc. (aka Onyx Records), a New York entity co-founded in 1972 by
Don Schlitten and
Joe Fields.[6][7]
Newman,[c] while a student at
Columbia in 1941, lugged his
acetate disc recording machine – a portable
Wilcox-Gay Recordio "disc cutter" – to jazz clubs in
Harlem, including
Minton's Playhouse on 118th Street and
Clark Monroe's Uptown House on 134th Street, both of which were incubators of jazz of the day, and in 1941, the beginning of
bebop. Newman's collection has endured as the core library for Onyx Recording, Inc.
Art Tatum[8] at
Minton's in 1941, issued by Onyx after being declined by
Columbia, on the
LPGod Is in the House.[Discography 1] At the
16th Annual Grammy Awards held in March 1974, the album won two
Grammys, one for
Best Improvised Jazz Solo and one for
Best Liner Notes, written by
Morgenstern. Newman's recordings have been issued as unauthorized records, variously over the years, but none were done so with the permission or participation of the artists or their estates.[9] The commercial value of the recordings were deemed nil; and those who acquired and distributed the recordings viewed the mission as one of curating jazz history.
The
Art Tatum session at Gee-Haw Stables was the subject of a poem, "Art Tatum at the Gee-Haw Stables", by
Grace Schulman.[10]
(1st Verse)
Don't want no woman
That uses a straight comb
Don't want no woman
That uses a straight comb
She's ornery and evil
Can't keep a happy home
(2st Verse)
Looks in the mirror
Get mad when she sees her hair
Looks in the mirror
Get mad when she sees her hair
Can't blame her
'Cause its hardly any up there
(3rd Verse)
Ain't my fault
If she has bad hair
Ain't my fault
If she has bad hair
She may as well accept the fact
'Cause gettin' evil ain't nowhere
Piano solo
(12 bars)
(4th Verse)
Woman quit your squawkin'
Don't be so dumb
Woman quit your squawkin'
Don't be so dumb
If you don't like the hair you got
Go downtown and buy you some
Collaborators
Percy Brice (né Percy Austin Brice Jr.; born March 25, 1923, New York City)
(de), drummer, performed with Chocolate Williams after-hours at
Minton's from 1953 to 1954.[11]
Family
Among his survivors are: his son, Tony Davis; a sister, Alberta Bloomer, a niece, Jennifer Riley; a nephew and 15 grandnieces and nephews.[5]
Parents
Mother: Jennie (née Jennifer Scott), who was married to Robert Williams Sr., and, later, Edward Bolden
Father: Robert Williams Sr.
Nephew
Kimati Dinizulu (1956–2013) – the late American-born African percussionist and exponent of
Akan traditions in America – was a nephew of Chocolate Williams.[12]
Selected compositions
"Three Nickels and a Dime", Chocolate Williams (w&m), 1st copy December 16, 1944, Class E unpublished 401371, Chicago:
Mayo Music Corp[i]
"Three Chocolates" disambiguation
The Three Chocolates might wrongly associated with:
Three Chocolate Dandies, vocalists and dancers from the mid-1920s, which featured Albert Wilkins, Bennie Anderson, Fulton Alexander
The Chocolate Steppers, dancers from the early-1930s
The Three Chocolate Drops, dancers from the early-1930s
Three Chocolateers,
acrobatic danceers and vocalists, who, among other things, performed "Peckin'" in the 1937 film, New Faces of 1937; originally from the West Coast, but performed famously in Harlem, notably at the
Apollo Theater and
Cotton Club; possible original members: Al Bert "Gip" Gipson, Paul Black, known for his Chinese splits (straddling the floor as he walked), and Eddie West, with James Buster Brown replacing West for a short period of time[14]
Kid Chocolate, World Featherweight Champion boxer from Cuba
The Chocolateers (aka the Burbank Chocolateers), appeared on
WBZ (Boston) as early as May 1926
The Chocolateers, a baseball team sponsored by Hershey Chocolate of
Hershey, Pennsylvania, from as early as 1929
Garrott Chocolateers, a radio orchestra out of Pittsburgh (1929–1930), formerly Garrott's Chocolate Soldiers (musical comedy; on radio from 1926 to 1927)
Nestle Chocolateers, singers sponsored by the company, initially broadcast from Pittsburgh beginning September 5, 1930, running through 1934, and hosted by
Helen Morgan
Phil Kelly's Chocolateers, A basketball team from
Kingston, New York, in the early 1930s
George Dawson's Chocolateers, guitarist Dawson formed this Detroit group in 1935 as the house band at the Chocolate Bar in Detroit; They made a few recordings for Paradise Records in late 1947
Venues included The Plantation Club, which in the 1930s, was at 80 West 126th Street, in
Harlem
^William Spotswood (aka Willie or Williah Spottswood, aka Spotwood, né William Howard Spottswood Jr.; born around 1916 New York City), from about 1926 to about 1930, studied piano at the Martin-Smith School of Music (founded in 1916) in New York City; he was a co-composer – with
Leonard Ware, and Edward Robinson – originally uncredited, of "
Hold Tight;" they composed while performing it as a trio
^Bill Fox (aka Bill Mink, Bill Wolf/Wolfe), Jerry Newman, and Seymour Weiss (né Seymour Michael Wyse; born 1923 in London) founded the Esoteric Record Corporation in 1949 in New York. In 1957 the label was renamed Counterpoint; and after being first sold to Eichler Records Corporation in 1960, and then to Everest Record Group in 1963, to Counterpoint / Esoteric Records. Earlier, in 1948, Newman and Wyse founded Greenwich Music Shop. In 1964, Fox moved to
Vanguard Records, to become the production coordinator. Fox had been Newman's business partner with the Greenwich Music Shop
^
abc"Theatre Briefs", by Al Morris, Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 25
^"Knockin' Myself Out" (record review of an
Art Tatum release), by Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare, Vol. 32, No. 3, January 2009, pps. 372–373;
ISSN0148-9364 (accessible via publisher's archives and
EBSCO Accession # 35343569, both requiring a fee)
^"Earl May, Intuitive Bassist, Dies", by Ron Scott, New York Amsterdam News, January 10, 2008, pg. 35
^
ab"Robert 'Chocolate' Williams dies at 68", New York Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 24 (accessed April 8, 2016, via
ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
^Ancestral Spirits, Kamiti Dinizulu, record album liner notes by Salim Washington, Phd (né Michael Spence Washington; born 1958),
Queens, New York: African Room Music L.L.C. (2010)