J. Mayo Williams

Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams (born September 25, 1894 in Pine Bluff , Arkansas , † January 2, 1980 in Chicago ) was an American music producer who was first known as one of the first African American football players. His nickname came from his ability to get numerous talented blues and jazz musicians to sign contracts with the music industry. He was one of the most successful producers of so-called Race Records and also founded his own record label.

Live and act

Williams left his birthplace with his mother at the age of seven after his father was killed in a shootout to continue growing up and finishing school in Monmouth, Illinois . From 1916 to 1921 he studied at Brown University , where he prepared for a career in sports. Until 1926 he played as a professional in the National Football League , first for Hammond (Ind.) Pros , then also for the Canton Bulldogs , Dayton Triangles and Cleveland Bulldogs . Like Paul Robeson, he was one of the first African American professional players in this sport.

In addition, Williams began working for Paramount Records in 1924 ; he has worked as a talent scout and as a music producer in the Chicago area. So he discovered the singer Ma Rainey for the record, but also dad Charlie Jackson . He's also recorded Blind Lemon Jefferson , Tampa Red , Thomas A. Dorsey , Ida Cox , Jimmy Blythe , Jelly Roll Morton , King Oliver and Freddie Keppard and employed songwriters like Tiny Parham .

Black Patti Records

In 1927 he left Paramount to start his own company, The Chicago Record Company , which released jazz, blues and gospel recordings on the Black Patti sub-label . There appeared Original Stack O 'Lee Blues by The Down Home Boys , the first recording of the song about Stagger Lee . After the label failed, Williams worked for Brunswick Records and its sub-label Vocalion , for which he recorded Clarence "Pine Top" Smith and Leroy Carr . Due to the economic crisis in 1929 , he worked as a football coach at Morehouse College in Atlanta .

In 1934, Decca Records brought Williams to their Race Records business . Early recordings by Mahalia Jackson , Alberta Hunter , Blind Boy Fuller , Roosevelt Sykes , Sleepy John Estes , Kokomo Arnold , Peetie Wheatstraw , Bill Gaither , Bumble Bee Slim , Georgia White , Trixie Smith , Monette Moore , Sister Rosetta Tharpe , Gladys Palmer or von Tab Smith owed his skills as well as independent recordings by the Harlem Hamfats or the combos by Louis Jordan , which formed one of the roots of jump blues .

In 1945 Williams left Decca in order to run his own labels like Harlem (in New York City) and the labels Chicago, Southern and Ebony (in Chicago) until 1949 , for which he discovered musicians like Muddy Waters . In 1952 he revived the Ebony label to record Lil Armstrong , Oscar Brown and Hammie Nixon .

Similar to white producers (such as Irving Mills ), Williams also claimed ownership interests in songs, so that he is registered as the co-author of numerous songs, such as Kidman Blues , Corrine, Corrina , Nellie Lutchers Fine Brown Frame , Louis Jordan's Mop Mop , Keep a Knocking by Bert Mays or Drinkin 'Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee by Stick McGhee . Musicians like Blind Blake or Blind Lemon Jefferson presumably received no royalties. His business activities were also otherwise criticized.

In 2004 the Blues Foundation inducted him into the Blues Hall of Fame for his contributions to the development of the genre .

literature

• William Howland Kenney: Recorded Music in American Life: The Phonograph and Popular Memory, 1890-1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Web links

• Entry (Encyclopedia of Arkansas)
• Portrait (Black Ivy League)
• J. Mayo Williams at Allmusic (English)
• J. Mayo Williams at Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b} William Barlow "Looking Up At Down": The Emergence of Blues Culture . Temple University Press 1989, pp. 131-32.
2. ↑ Jim Dawson & Steve Propes, Jim Dawson & Steve Propes: What Was the First Rock 'n' Roll Record? . Faber & Faber, Boston, London 1992, ISBN 0-571-12939-0 .