Chocolate Williams Explained

Chocolate Williams
Birth Name:	Robert Williams Jr.
Alias:	Bob Williams Billy Williams
Birth Date:	1 February 1916
Birth Place:	Augusta, Georgia, U.S.
Death Place:	Manhattan, New York, U.S.
Occupation:	Jazz bassist, vocalist
Instrument:	Double bass
Years Active:	1935–1957
Label:	Onyx Records
Associated Acts:	Three Chocolates Rex Stewart Herbie Nichols Art Tatum

Chocolate Williams (also known as Billy and Bob, né Robert Williams Jr.; February 1, 1916 – June 22, 1984) was an American jazz bassist and vocalist based in New York City. He was a prolific performer of jazz, and, notably, performed and recorded with Art Tatum in 1941 and Herbie Nichols in 1952.

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. The other two original members were guitarist Jerome Darr (de), who went on to perform with Jonah Jones, and pianist Bill Spotswood. 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.

Semi-retirementAfter his semi-retirement in 1955, Chocolate Williams worked as a messenger for CBS and retired in 1974.

ResidencesHe 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.

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"

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)

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)<br />

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)<br />

Herbie Nichols
Savoy MG 12100 (1952)
HL 313: "Who's Blues?"
HL 314: "'S Wonderful"

Gershwin (w&m)HL 315: "Nichols and Dimes"

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)

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)<br />

Other sessions 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)

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.

Newman, 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 at Minton's in 1941, issued by Onyx after being declined by Columbia, on the LP God Is in the House. 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. The commercial value of the recordings were deemed ; 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.

Selected lyrics

"Good Story Blues"

(twelve-bar blues)

(audio on YouTube)

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.

Family

Among his survivors are: his son, Tony Davis; a sister, Alberta Bloomer, a niece, Jennifer Riley; a nephew and 15 grandnieces and nephews.

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.

Selected compositions

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

"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
- 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
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
The 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

Discography references

Inline citations