History of Jody Williams
September 22, 2006
| Profile on Chicago Blues Legend JODY WILLIAMS By Rose Allen The word “legend” is used with a fair amount of frequency these days. It seems like the mere act of living to a ripe old age is often enough to earn this designation. In the case of Blues guitarist Jody Williams, however, the descriptive is entirely and gloriously justified. As the first great string bender on the Chicago Blues scene, Jody provided the stylistic bridge between B.B. King and T-Bone Walker, two of his principle influences, and young firebrands Otis Rush and Buddy Guy, both of whom absorbed his innovations and licks as they modernized the music form. You can hear echoes of Jody in Carlos Santana and Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green, and his impact extends to a legion of contemporary Bluesmen on the scene. The “architect of electric blues guitar,” Joseph Leon Williams was born in Mobile, Alabama on February 3, 1935. His family moved to Chicago’s South Side when he was five. His musical odyssey actually commenced on harmonica rather than guitar. “The Harmonicats were my idols then,” Williams recalls. “One of their hits I remember that I used to play was Peg O’ My Heart. I never played any Blues.” “I didn’t know anything about any guitar,” he continues. “I was doing talent and amateur shows and stuff like that around town, and also on the radio. That’s how I met Bo Diddley. I liked the sound of his guitar and that washtub, which was made to sound like a bass. When we met backstage, I asked him if I got a guitar, would he teach me how to play? He agreed. The next week I saw a guitar in a pawnshop down on 47th Street for $32.50, which I bought with the help of my mother. Bo showed me how to tune it and how to run a bass line behind him while he was singing. Next thing you know there were three of us, out on the corner! Two guitars and a washtub.” “The tuning Bo Diddley taught me when we used to play on the street corners, that’s the same tuning I use – open E. Years ago, I went to two guitar teachers and told ‘em I want to learn how to play some music right now – I can learn how to play the scales later! They couldn’t teach me what I wanted to learn, so I went out into the nightclubs and got on-the-job training. So I am self-taught. My voicing are different; in lots of ways, my techniques are different.” That was 1951. The trio was augmented by harpist Billy Boy Arnold the next year. “We made enough money out there on the corners to buy an amplifier. We put out a hat and the money came rollin’ in. Billy, he couldn’t outplay the amplifier. So what he did, he got one of them mason fruit jars and started blowin’ through that, getting a bigger sound.” Jody got his first real bandstand experience with pianist Henry Gray and guitarist Morris Pejoe. He gigged behind Memphis Minnie and Elmore James, shared a flat with Otis Spann and harpist Henry “Pot” Strong, and soon hit the road with West Coast piano great Charles Brown and guitarist Johnny Moore. “I had this little Gibson amplifier with a 12-inch speaker in it. Back in those days, Muddy Waters and Jimmy Rogers and all these guys, they had these amps. And you talk about distortion! That’s the way it was. We were playing in these great big dance halls, Charles Brown and Johnny Moore and me. While still in his teens and wielding a Kay guitar, Jody joined forces with the newly arrived Howlin’ Wolf and played on Wolf’s seminal Evil (Is Goin’ On) and Who Will Be Next. “I’d been playin’ with Chess. I met Wolf when he first got to Chicago. It was 1954,” Jody explains. “I happened to go down there one day and there he was. I remember he had this long, dark brown DeSoto limousine. Wolf needed some musicians, and I wasn’t playing with anybody regular at the time. So, I was the first one in the band.” During the mid-to-late 1950’s, Jody was a prolific studio musician. He invigorated Bo Diddley’s voodoo-laced 1956 Checker smash Who Do You Love with a barrage of scalding fretwork. Williams slashing axe graced sessions with Jimmy Rogers (One Kiss), Floyd Dixon (Alarm Clock Blues), Jimmy Witherspoon (Ain’t Nobody’s Business), Otis Rush (Groaning The Blues), and Boy Boy Arnold (I Ain’t Got You.) Williams extensively toured the country with Bo Diddley during rock and roll’s initial mid-50’s rise. There were tours with the likes of Bill Haley & the Comets, The Platters, the Five Keys. Jody also played behind Big Joe Turner. During one of these tours, Jody and Bo had worked up a new song Love is Strange, based on a song of Williams’, the Latin-tempoed instrumental Billy’s Blues. The hit duo Mickey and Sylvia were also on the tour, fell in love with the song and unbeknownst to Jody, recorded it for release. Mickey and Sylvia’s adaptation of Love is Strange hit the charts in December of 1956 and remained there for 15 weeks, including two weeks at number one. Unfortunately, Williams never received proper credit or compensation for his vital contribution. After a tour of duty overseas in the army, Jody began recording for the Chicago indie label Nike Records in 1962. His delicious minor-key instrumental Moanin’ for Molasses and the tough instrumental Hideout were highlights of that time period. Jody kept busy during the early 1960’s, but by late in the decade, he was tired of getting short changed on recognition and financial rewards. He also had a family to support. He stopped playing the guitar, stopped going to clubs, stopped listening to music. In a strange twist of irony, Williams, the guitarist that so many copied, took a job as an engineer for the Xerox Corporation. A few years ago, Williams’ retired from that 30-year career. His absence from music during that time period was total. Jody had lived in a quiet Chicago neighborhood for 32 years and nobody knew about his musical background. His old friend Robert Junior Lockwood prevailed upon him to get back into music. He began gigging again, in Chicago, and shortly afterward, around the world, seemingly without having missed a beat. During his self-imposed layoff, Jody notes, “My guitar was under the bed. I hadn’t been listening to anybody. Didn’t want to hear it; wasn’t interested. What I’m playing now is things that’s been in my head all those years. When I started back playing, all I had to do was strengthen my fingers, ‘cause they were weak over that 30-year period of time. I may hear some guitar player that I like, and I compliment him. You can’t go through life not listening to other guitar players; some of it’s gonna’ come through. But to keep myself sounding different, I add what I call the ‘Jody Williams touch,’ because I don’t want to sound like everybody else. My playing is different; my tone is different. I haven’t been around to take from anyone else.” It took some strong persuasion to pull him out of this 30-year hiatus. But Jody Williams reemerged onto the music scene with the Dick Shurman-produced album Return of A Legend, which in 2002 became the vehicle to re-launch his career. In 2004, he released “You Left Me in the Dark.” Williams once again teamed up with Shurman to record material that continues to show his strength as a songwriter and a master of Chicago Blues guitar style. Jody Williams has since received numerous awards and recognition, including: • Blues Foundation Howlin’ Wolf Award, 2005 • 2005 Living Blues Award for Best Musician, Guitar • 2005 Living Blues Award for Best New Recording/Contemporary, You Left Me in the Dark • 2003 W. C. Handy Comeback Album of the Year, Return of a Legend • 2003 Living Blues Critics Award for Come Back Artist of the Year “Williams comes back armed with a tone and style that’ll turn your head around.” - Guitar Player Magazine “Throughout, Williams’ famously clear tone and unique phrasing play off his confident vocals and sophisticated changes.” - Blues Revue Magazine on You Left Me in the Dark Jody Williams is looking to the future as well as the past. “I don’t slack off: Whenever something come tome, I put it down. I’m not sitting around waiting for someone to plant me. I’m gonna be onstage playing, I hope, as long as the good Lord keep me able. I’m in my own environment when I’m entertaining the people, because that’s my life. In 30 years, I missed out on a whole lot of things. I’ll hold on as long as I possibly can to keep entertaining these people and giving them what they want to hear.” This is a rare opportunity to see this Chicago Blues Legend. Jody will be making select Northwest appearances in October, teaming up with Portland’s own blues powerhouse, Rose City Kings. This combination of musical artistry – the traditional and contemporary – will provide a performance not to be missed! |
###