Chocolate Williams

Chocolate Williams (aka Billy, aka Bob, né Robert Williams, Jr.; February 1, 1916 Augusta, Georgia – June 22, 1984, Manhattan, New York)[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]

This article is about the jazz bassist and blues vocalist from Harlem. For other uses, see Robert Williams.

Chocolate Williams
Birth nameRobert Williams, Jr.
Also known asBob Williams
Billy Williams
Born(1916-02-01)February 1, 1916
Augusta, Georgia
DiedJune 22, 1984(1984-06-22) (aged 68)
Manhattan, New York
Occupation(s)Jazz bassist, vocalist
InstrumentsDouble bass
Years active1935–1957
LabelsOnyx Records
Associated actsThree Chocolates
Rex Stewart
Herbie Nichols
Art Tatum

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.[lower-alpha 1] The other two original members were guitarist Jerome Darr (de), who went on to perform with Jonah Jones, and pianist Bill Spotswood.[lower-alpha 2] 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
  1. 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"
    Art Tatum (vocalist)
    (Williams not on this cut)

    2: "Knockin' Myself Out"

    Chocolate Williams (vocalist)

    3: "Toledo Blues" (1)

    Art Tatum (vocalist)

    4: "Body and Soul"

    (Williams not on this cut)
    Johnny Green (music)
    Edward Heyman (words)
    Robert Sour (words)
    Frank Eyton (words)

    5: "Star Dust"

    Anna Robinson (vocalist)
    Hoagy Carmichael (music)
    Mitchell Parish (words)

    6: "Embraceable You"

    Ethel White (vocalist)
    George Gershwin (music)
    Ira Gershwin (words)

    7: "I Surrender Dear"

    Charlie Shavers (vocalist)
    Harry Barris (music)
    Gordon Clifford (words)

    8: "There'll Be Some Changes Made" (6)

    Ollie Potter (vocalist)
    William (Willie) Benton Overstreet (1888–1935) (music)
    Billy Higgins (né William Weldon Higgins; 1888–1937) (words)

    (see note)

  2. 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"
    Ralph Douglas, Frankie Carle (w&m) (1952)

    1065-4: "On You It Looks Good"

    Ralph Douglas (w&m)

  3. 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)
    Paul Bascomb (w&m)

    HL 312: "Good Story Blues"
    Chocolate Williams (vocalist)
    (audio on YouTube)

    Robert Williams, Jr. (w&m)
    Jerome Darr (de) (1910–1986) (w&m)
  4. Herbie Nichols
    Savoy MG 12100 (1952)
    HL 313: "Who's Blues?"
    HL 314: "'S Wonderful"
    Gershwin (w&m)

    HL 315: "Nichols and Dimes"

  5. Thelonious Monk with the Gigi Gryce Quartet / Herbie Nichols
    Savoy SJL 1166
    HL 314: "'S Wonderful" (alternate take)
    Gershwin (w&m)

    HL 315: "Nichols and Dimes" (alternate take)

  6. Chocolate Williams and His Chocolateers
    Hi-Lo Records 1403 (1952)
    HL 313: "Who's Blues?"
    Nathaniel Pierce Blish, Jr. (1901–1992) (w&m)

    HL 314: "'S Wonderful"

    Gershwin (w&m)

    7. Other sessions
  7. 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)
    Joe Williams & J. Mayo Williams (words & music; 1944)
    Chicago: Mayo Music Corp. (publisher)
    OCLC 811765032, 811765032
Discography notes
  • "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,[lower-alpha 3] 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 LP God 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]

Selected lyrics
"Good Story Blues"
(twelve-bar blues)
(audio on YouTube)

(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 compostions
  1. "Three Nickels and a Dime"
    Chocolate Williams (w&m)
    1st copy December 16, 1944
    Class E unpublished 401371
    Chicago: Mayo Music Corp [lower-roman 1]

"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 Dandies (1924), a musical comedy review; the book was by Noble Sissle and Lew Peyton and the music was by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake[13]
  • Chocolate Kiddies (1925), an international touring musical revue directed by Sam Wooding
  • 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
  • Carolina Chocolate Drops
  • Jason "White Chocolate" Williams, NBA basketball player
  • Curtis "Chocolate" Williams of Pittsburgh
  • Connie's Hot Chocolates, a 1929 Broadway musical

References
Notes
  1. Members of the Three Chocolates were:
    1. Chocolate Williams (died 1984) (bass and leader)
    2. Jerome Darr (de) (1910 Baltimore – October 19, 1986 Brooklyn) (guitar) ("Guitarist Jerome Darr, 75, Dies After Brief Illness", Amsterdam News, November 8, 1986, pg. 24)
    3. William "Willie" or "Bill" Spottswood (piano)
    Venues included The Plantation Club, which in the 1930s, was at 80 West 126th Street, in Harlem

  2. 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

  3. 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

Catalog of Copyright Entries, Part 3 Musical Compositions, New Series, Library of Congress, Copyright Office
Original copyrights
Discography references
  1. God is in the house, Art Tatum, Onyx Records, ORI 205 (LP) (1972); OCLC 3197822, 473711960
    Art Tatum (1909–1956) (piano), Frankie Newton (1906–1954) (trumpet), Chocolate Williams (bass); Ebenezer Paul (1919–1947) (bass)
        Liner notes: Dan Morgenstern     1940: November 11
        1941: May 7, July 26–27, September 16
        Minton's, Harlem
        Re-issued: HighNote HCD 7030 (CD) (1998); OCLC 41634272

Inline citations
  1. God is in the house, Art Tatum, Onyx Records, ORI 205 (LP) (1972); OCLC 3197822, 473711960
    Art Tatum (1909–1956) (piano), Frankie Newton (1906–1954) (trumpet), Chocolate Williams (bass); Ebenezer Paul (1919–1947) (bass)
        Liner notes: Dan Morgenstern     1940: November 11
        1941: May 7, July 26–27, September 16
        Minton's, Harlem
        Re-issued: HighNote HCD 7030 (CD) (1998); OCLC 41634272

  2. "Theatre Briefs", by Al Morris, Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 25
  3. "Knockin' Myself Out" (record review of an Art Tatum release), by Lynn René Bayley, Fanfare, Vol. 32, No. 3, January 2009, pps. 372–373; ISSN 0148-9364 (accessible via publisher's archives and EBSCO Accession # 35343569, both requiring a fee)
  4. "Earl May, Intuitive Bassist, Dies", by Ron Scott, New York Amsterdam News, January 10, 2008, pg. 35
  5. "Robert 'Chocolate' Williams dies at 68", New York Amsterdam News, June 30, 1984, pg. 24 (accessed April 8, 2016, via ProQuest Historical Newspapers)
  6. Collected Works: A Journal of Jazz 1954–2001, by Whitney Balliett, St. Martin's Press (2002), pg. 394; OCLC 422000268
  7. "Onyx Formed, Schlitten Chief", Billboard, July 1, 1972, pg. 3, col. 1 (bottom)
  8. "The Greatest Soloist in the History of Jazz", by Lynn René Bayley, Art Music Lounge (WordPress blog), April 1, 2016 (retrieved June 1, 2016)
  9. "Homage To Jerry Newman", by John A. Schott (born 1966), John Schott's blog at WordPress, July 27, 2015 (retrieved January 20, 2016)
  10. "Art Tatum at the Gee-Haw Stables", by Grace Schulman, The Georgia Review, Vol. 58, No. 2, Poetry and "Poiēsis" (Summer 2004), p. 278; ISSN 0016-8386
    Republished in a compilation: The Broken String, Houghton Mifflin (2007), pps. 26–27; OCLC 71004292
  11. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz, "Brice, Percy", by Leonard Feather & Ira Gitler, Oxford University Press (1999), pg. 79; OCLC 38746731
  12. 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)
  13. "The Chocolate Dandies Score at Dunbar", The Philadelphia Inquirer November 25, 1924, pg. 20 (retrieved December 15, 2016, via www.newspapers.com/image/170831400/, fee required)
  14. Marv Goldberg R&B Notebooks: "The 3 Chocolateers", by Marv Goldberg (2014), Unca Marvy's R&B Page (www.uncamarvy.com) (retrieved April 15, 2016)
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