Joe Williams - Four Classic Albums (2021)

AVID Jazz continues with its Four Classic Albums series with a re-mastered 2CD set release from Joe Williams complete with original artwork, liner notes and personnel details.
“A Night At Count Basie’s”; “A Man Ain’t Supposed To Cry”; “Everyday I Have The Blues” and “Just The Blues”
Before I agreed to write these sales notes for our Joe Williams set, I insisted to the friendly guys at AVID that I would absolutely not mention the fact that our man has often been mistaken for the legendary blues man Big Joe Williams. They agreed so I won’t mention it! Joe Williams was born Joseph Goreed in Georgia 1918 but was raised by his mother and grandmother on the south side of Chicago. His early years were spent singing gospel in church choirs and he began his professional solo career in 1937. Joe played with many of the big bands of the era including Lionel Hampton and Jimmy Noone as well as touring with Coleman Hawkins in 1941. From 1954 to 1961 Joe was to play with the man whose name he is perhaps synonymous with, the legendary Count Basie. Here we feature Joe on three albums featuring and supported by the great man. The two would remain great friends, with Joe regularly performing with Basie during his own very successful solo career. In 1992 one of our featured albums “Everyday I Have The Blues” was added to the Grammy Hall Of Fame for recordings of particular historical or qualitative importance. An impressive list of artists Joe has played with would have to include Harry “Sweets” Edison, Cannonball Adderley, George Shearing, Junior Mance, Clark Terry and Thad Jones. Our final album of this set “Just The Blues” features just Joe and The Count Basie Orchestra together and to the best of our knowledge has not been available on CD until now!