Willie Bryant

Willie Bryant ( born August 30, 1908 in New Orleans, as William Steven Bryant, † February 9, 1964 in Los Angeles ) was an American jazz singer and bandleader.

Bryant retired in 1912 with his family to Chicago. He made his debut there in 1928 as a dancer and singer, among others, along with Leonard Reed in vaudeville theaters. Later he went to New York and worked in the 1934 revue Hot Chocolate with. He then headed to 1939 a big band in the Kansas City style, which occurred at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem, among others. The first of two hits that Bryant was able to record, was the song " Moonrise on the Lowlands " (# 20), and the resulting at the same session song " Is It True What They Say About Dixie? " (# 14).

Among the musicians of his orchestra were Benny Carter, Ben Webster and Cozy Cole ( 1935), Jack Butler ( 1936), James Archey (1938 ) and Taft Jordan ( 1936). In 1945 he took the title blues round the clock and It's Over Because We're Through to the rhythm and blues style. Bryant founded in 1946 again a band but was dissolved in 1948. In this formation Billy Taylor and Dan Minor worked with. Then Bryant worked as a disc jockey and nightclub emcee at the Apollo Theater. He spent his final years in Los Angeles, where he died in 1964 of a heart attack.

His daughter Marie Bryant was also a singer and dancer.