Check out this artist at Amazon.com

Born

  • July 24, 1910
  • Mobile, AL

Died

  • September 15, 1985
  • New York, NY

Real Name

  • Charles Melvin Williams

Theme Song

  • 'Round Midnight

Cootie Williams

Famed trumpeter Cootie Williams was an integral part of Duke Ellington's orchestra during the 1930s. His extraordinary talent with the plunger mute helped shape the band's sound and propel it to the top. Williams later led a successful band of his own. He also is remembered as co-author of the classic jazz number '''Round Midnight,'' with Thelonius Monk.

Williams began performing at an early age, working around his native Mobile, Alabama, with Johnny Pope and Holman's Jazz Band and touring with the Young Family Band before moving to Pensacola, Florida, at age 15, where he joined a group led Calvin Shields. In 1928 he traveled north with the Alonzo Ross DeLuxe Syncopators and settled in New York City. He worked with Arthur Ford, Chick Webb, and Fletcher Henderson before signing with Ellington in 1929, where he replaced the departing Bubber Miley.

Williams quickly became a key member of Ellington's orchestra. He possessed a greater range of technique and emotion than his predecessor and was able to expand upon his role in the group. Impressed with the young trumpet player, Ellington would often let him record under his own name using fellow band members. These recordings were alternately credited as Cootie Williams and His Rug Cutters or the Cootie Williams Orchestra.

Williams remained with Ellington until 1940 when he left to join Benny Goodman, whom he had previously worked with during Goodman's famed Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938. Williams played in both the King of Swing's orchestra and his sextet, staying, however, only a year before asking to rejoin Ellington. Ellington instead encouraged him to start his own band. Williams' orchestra debuted at the Grand Terrace Ballroom in Chicago in 1942. At various times it featured such musicians as Bud Powell, Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, and Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Vocalists included Bobby Merrill, Eddie Mack, and Pearl Bailey.

In 1948, as the big band era ended, Williams scaled his orchestra down to a sextet and eventually began to focus more on rhythm and blues. The sextet was more commercial oriented than Williams' previous efforts, but he soon returned to his roots, organizing a new jazz combo. In 1962 Williams rejoined Ellington's orchestra, remaining there after Mercer Ellington took over the band upon his father's death in 1974. Williams eventually retired the following year due to health problems. Cootie Williams passed away in 1985.