Midge Williams

Midge Williams ( born May 27, 1915 in Portland ( Oregon) as Virginia Louise Williams, † January 9, 1952 in San Francisco) was an American jazz singer.

Williams was in the 1930s and 1940s, with their formation Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters a singer, which earned the late 1930s, a number of 78ern for Vocalion. Midge Williams received early nicknamed " Midge ", to distinguish it from her mother, also named Virginia Louise. She grew up in the African-American rural community of Allensworth (California ) at in Tulare County. Her grandfather Joshua Singleton, son of the black separatist leader Benjamin " Pap " Singleton, moved with his family to the colony founded in 1909, where the singletons were prominent members of the community. Early Midge Williams has performed with three of her brothers as a singing and dancing Williams Quartette in churches and theaters in the San Francisco Bay Area on. In the early 1930s took over Roger Seguire the management of the group; In 1933 he left the Williams Quartette occur in Shanghai; from there toured the group in Japan, where she performed in clubs and dance halls. In Japan, originated in 1934 Midge Williams' first recordings, as she recorded songs in Japanese and English.

In August 1934, the Williams Quartette returned to California; shortly thereafter died Midges brother Charles in a gun accident. With the end of the quartet Midge Williams began her solo career, settled in Berkeley and had from the middle of 1935 a regular radio program, Blue Monday Jamboree. Early in 1936, she met Al Jolson know and sang in his radio program Shell Chateau. She then moved to Chicago and worked with musicians such as Miff Mole, Fats Waller, Teddy Wilson and Frank Fröba. Recordings under his own name emerged for both Vocalion, as well as with the band by John Kirby. Mid- 1936, she moved to New York and entered several times at Rudy Vallees radio show. In early 1937, she sang on the show NBC Red Network.

During her time in New York Williams appeared on various radio programs, as in RCA Magic Key, the Studebaker Champions show and Ben Bernie's show. From the middle of 1936 created recordings for various labels, starting in 1937 with their band Midge Williams and Her Jazz Jesters; which included musicians such as Raymond Scott, Frankie Newton, Buster Bailey and Charlie Shavers. She also appeared in the popular New York City venues such as the Apollo Theater in Harlem and the Savoy Ballroom; besides, she had joint appearances with Lil Armstrong, Bunny Berigan, Harry James, John Kirby, Glenn Miller, Ben Webster and Teddy Wilson.

In 1938 Midge Williams band singer Louis Armstrong Orchestra and toured with him by the United States; However, there were no recordings. 1941 Midge Williams left the Armstrong orchestra and had to see what her career almost ended a hospital in Detroit. Then you only occurred once in 1946 in the Jack Webb radio show with the Cow Cow Boogie on and then got into oblivion. She died in May 1952 of tuberculosis.

Disco Graphical Notes

• Midge Williams 1937-1938 ( Classics )
• The Complete Midge Williams Vol 1 & 2 (Swing Time Productions )

Swell

• Arnold, Bob. " A Brief Biography of " Midge " Williams. " Liner notes in The Complete Midge Williams, vol. 1 & vol. 2 (Audio CD ) Hollis, NH: Swing Time Records, 2001.
• Nuclear field, Barry, ed The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, vol. 3 London: Macmillan Publishers, Ltd., 2002..