Editing Spencer Williams

{{Short description|American musician, composer, and singer (1889–1965) }}
{{Other people}}
{{use mdy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Infobox musical artist <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Musicians -->
| name                = Spencer Williams
| image               = Spencer Williams - pianist.jpg
| caption             = 
| image_size          = 
| background          = solo_singer
| birth_name          = Spencer Williams
| alias               = 
| birth_date          = {{Birth date|1889|10|14}}
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1965|07|14|1889|10|14}}
| death_place         = [[Flushing, New York]], U.S.
| birth_place         = [[Vidalia, Louisiana]], U.S.
| genre               = [[Jazz]], [[popular music]]
| instrument          = Piano, vocals
| occupation          = Composer, musician
| years_active        = 
| label               = 
| associated_acts     = [[Fats Waller]], [[Josephine Baker]]
}}

'''Spencer Williams''' (October 14, 1889 – July 14, 1965)<ref name="LarkinBlues">{{cite book|title=[[Encyclopedia of Popular Music|The Guinness Who's Who of Blues]]|editor=[[Colin Larkin (writer)|Colin Larkin]]|publisher=[[Guinness Publishing]]|date=1995|edition=Second|isbn=0-85112-673-1|pages=381/2}}</ref> was an American [[jazz]] and [[popular music]] composer, pianist, and singer. He is best known for his hit songs "[[Basin Street Blues]]", "[[I Ain't Got Nobody]]", "[[Royal Garden Blues]]", "[[I've Found a New Baby]]", "[[Everybody Loves My Baby]]", "[[Tishomingo Blues]]", and many others.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/>

==Biography==
Spencer Williams was born in [[Vidalia, Louisiana|Vidalia]], [[Louisiana]], United States.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> He was reportedly educated at St. Charles University in New Orleans, although no such school is known to have existed (there was, however, a [[St. Charles College (Louisiana)|St. Charles University]] a few hours west in [[Grand Coteau, Louisiana|Grand Couteau]]).<ref name="RWJ">{{cite web|title=''Tishomingo Blues:Spencer Williams''|url=http://www.riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/spencerwilliams/|publisher=Riverwalk Jazz|access-date=September 13, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100613092344/http://riverwalkjazz.org/jazznotes/spencerwilliams/|archive-date=June 13, 2010}}</ref><ref name="AM">{{cite web |first= Jason |last= Ankeny |title= ''Biography of Spencer Williams'' |url={{AllMusic|class=artist|id=p138553|pure_url=yes}} |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=September 13, 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Celebrating Jazz Appreciation Month with Spencer Williams |url=https://lib.usf.edu/news/celebrating-jazz-appreciation-month-with-spencer-williams/ |access-date=2023-04-20 |website=lib.usf.edu |language=en-US}}</ref>

Williams was performing in [[Chicago]] by 1907, and moved to [[New York City]] about 1916.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/>  After arriving in New York, he co-wrote with [[Anton Lada]] of the [[Louisiana Five]] several songs. One of them was "[[Basin Street Blues]]", which became one of his most popular songs and is still recorded by musicians to this day.<ref name="AM" />

Williams toured Europe with bands from 1925 to 1928; during this time he wrote for [[Josephine Baker]] at the [[Folies Bergère]] in Paris.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> Williams then returned to New York for a few years. At the end of the 1920s, Williams was tried but then acquitted on a charge of murder.<ref name="LarkinBlues"/> In 1932, he moved to Europe, spending many years in [[London]] before moving to [[Stockholm]] in 1951. Williams was married to Pat Castleton (a stage name of Agnes Bage). They had two daughters together, named Della and Lindy.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MH0btmTBccsC&q=pat+castleton+Bage|title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century|first=Gary|last=Giddins|date=18 May 2000|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]], US|isbn=9780195132410|access-date=22 December 2017}}</ref>

His hit songs include "[[Basin Street Blues]]", "[[I Ain't Got Nobody]]", "[[Royal Garden Blues]]", "Mahogany Hall Stomp", "[[I've Found a New Baby]]", "[[Everybody Loves My Baby]]", "Shimmy-Sha-Wobble", "Boodle Am Shake", "[[Tishomingo Blues]]", "Fireworks", "I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll", "Arkansas Blues", plus the [[dirty blues]] standard "[[Georgia Grind]]",<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/jazzin-the-blues-vol-5-1930-1953-mw0000016009|title=Jazzin' the Blues, Vol. 5: 1930-1953 - Various Artists &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/hop-head-mw0001234661|title=Hop Head - Duke Ellington & His Orchestra &#124; Songs, Reviews, Credits|website=[[AllMusic]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.earlyblues.com/Lucille3.htm|title=Lucille3|website=Earlyblues.com|access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|title=How Blue Can You Get? "It's Tight Like That" and the Hokum Blues|author=Roberta Freund Schwartz|journal=American Music|volume=36| issue =  3|date=2018|pages=367–393|publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]]|doi=10.5406/americanmusic.36.3.0367|s2cid=192728133}}</ref> "Paradise Blues", "When Lights Are Low", and "My Man o' War".

Williams returned to New York in 1957, before his death in [[Flushing, Queens]], on July 14, 1965.<ref name="AM"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.songhall.org/profile/Spencer_Williams|title=Spencer Williams &#124; Songwriters Hall of Fame|website=Songhall.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MH0btmTBccsC&q=%22Spencer+williams%22.+%22Died%22.+%221965%22&pg=PA46|title=Visions of Jazz: The First Century|first=Gary|last=Giddins|date=May 18, 2000|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]], US|page=46|isbn=9780195132410}}</ref>

Williams was posthumously inducted into the [[Songwriters Hall of Fame]] in 1970.<ref>{{cite web|title=''Spencer Williams''|url=http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C287?exhibitId=287|publisher=[[Songwriters Hall of Fame]]|access-date=September 13, 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101013003603/http://www.songwritershalloffame.org/exhibits/C287?exhibitId=287|archive-date=October 13, 2010}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102863 Spencer Williams recordings] at the [[Discography of American Historical Recordings]]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Spencer}}
[[Category:1889 births]]
[[Category:1965 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century American male musicians]]
[[Category:20th-century American pianists]]
[[Category:American jazz composers]]
[[Category:American jazz pianists]]
[[Category:American male jazz composers]]
[[Category:American male jazz pianists]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New Orleans]]
[[Category:Jazz musicians from New York (state)]]
{{US-jazz-pianist-stub}}