Williams, Spencer: 14 selected standards and hits, 1915 to 1936

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1915
I Ain’t Got Nobody (Spencer Williams, Roger Graham)

1917
Shimme Sha Wabble (Spencer Williams)
Tishomingo Blues (Spencer Williams)

1919
Royal Garden Blues (Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams)
I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None o’ This Jelly Roll (Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams)

1923
West Indies Blues (Edgar Dowell, Spencer Williams, Clarence Williams)

1924
Everybody Loves My Baby (m. Spencer Williams, w. Jack Palmer)

1926 — These two standards are included in the page 1926 selected standards and hits, part 2
Basin Street Blues (Spencer Williams)
I’ve Found a New Baby (m. Spencer Williams, w. Jack Palmer)

1927
Lonesome Lovesick Blues (Spencer Williams)

1928(?)
Mahogany Hall Stomp (Spencer Williams)
Fireworks (Spencer Williams)

1929
You Gotta Give Me Some (Spencer Williams)

1936
When Lights Are Low (Spencer Williams, Benny Carter)

SPENCER WILLIAMS

Biography, from riverwalkjazz.org — jazz notes:

Spencer Williams was one of the earliest black composers to shape jazz as popular music. Many of his songs, such as “Royal Garden Blues,” “Everybody Loves My Baby,”  and “I Ain’t Got Nobody,” became anthems of the Jazz Age and the Swing Era.

Spencer Williams was born in 1889 in New Orleans. Educated at St. Charles University in New Orleans, LA, Williams worked in Chicago around 1907 as a vocalist and pianist. There he often worked with another pianist, composer, and bandleader: Clarence Williams (no relation). About the time of WWI, he began writing songs…

In 1925, he traveled to Paris where he wrote songs for the voluptuous American expatriate, Josephine Baker, who was then working at the famed Follies Bergére. In 1930, he made several recordings, singing and playing the piano, with Teddy Bunn, and with Lonnie Johnson. In 1932, he and his friend Fats Waller vacationed in France. But while Waller returned to the U.S., Williams moved to England, where he remained in residence until 1951, after which he made Sweden his home.

Links:

• Songwriters Hall of Fame
• Wikipedia
• AllMusic

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1915

I Ain’t Got Nobody (Spencer Williams, Roger Graham)

From the “Attribution”  section of the Wikipedia page on the song:

Chicago and Saint Louis ragtime pianist and blues composer Charles Warfield (1878–1955) claimed to have originally written the song^[3] and a copyright dated April 1914 attributes Warfield as the composer, David Young as the lyricist, and Marie Lucas as the arranger. The title of the song is given as “I Ain’t Got Nobody and Nobody Cares for Me”. Williams’s copyright entry from 1916 under a shorter title attributes the composition to Davy Peyton and himself and the lyrics to publisher Roger Graham.^[4]

In 1916, Frank K. Root & Co., a Chicago publisher^[5] (né Frank Kimball Root; 1856–1932), acquired the Craig & Co. copyright, and, later that year, also acquired the Warfield-Young copyright.^[6]

Clarence E. Brandon, Sr. and Billy Smythe, both St. Louis musicians, both claim that they wrote the first version, words and music, of “I Ain’t Got Nobody”, filed two copyrights 1911, and published it that same year.^[2]

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Bessie Smith – 1925

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Red McKenzie and the Mound City Blue Blowers – 1929

According to the provider, the lineup for the performance in the following clip is Red McKenzie, Jack Bland, Carl Kress and Josh Billings. The band’s instrumentation includes comb (with tissue paper), kazoo, banjo, acoustic guitar, and a traveler’s suitcase played with whisk brooms. In I Ain’t Got Nobody, McKenzie, the vocalist and comb player, also plays music by blowing into an instrument which looks like a can. The second song is My Gal Sal, by Paul Dresser (1905).

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The Mills Brothers – c. early 1930s

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1917

Shimme Sha Wabble (Spencer Williams)

Red Nichols and his Five Pennies – recorded 3 July 1930

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Hot Antic Jazz Band – 1985

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Jim Callum Band – 1987 — the band, from San Antonio TX : Jim Cullum cornet, Allan Vache clarinet, Eddie Hubble trombone, John Sheridan piano, Howard Elkins banjo, Jack Wyatt bass and Ed Torres drums

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Tishomingo Blues (Spencer Williams)

Duke Ellington and his Orchestra – 1928

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1919

Royal Garden Blues (Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams)

Original Dixieland Jazz Band

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Bix Beiderbecke

The video provider attaches the following information:

On October 5 1927 Bix Beiderbecke recorded one of the most important jazz recordings in its history, Royal Garden Blues with his New Orleans Lucky Seven sometimes known as his Gang. Bix’s band had some superb musicians: Bill Rank, trombone; Don Murray, clarinet; Adrian Rollini, bass sax; Frank Signorelli, piano; Chauncey Moorehouse, drums.

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I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None of This Jelly Roll (Clarence Williams, Spencer Williams)

Sweet Emma Barrett — 1963(?)

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Louis Armstrong – 1964

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1923

West Indies Blues (Edgar Dowell, Spencer Williams, Clarence Williams)

Esther Bigeou — recorded on 14 Dec 1923

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Piron’s New Orleans Orchestra — recorded on 8 Jan 1924

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Clara Smith — recorded on 17 April 1924 New York, NY; issued on the 10″ 78 rpm single Columbia 14019-D, c/w “Clearing House Blues”

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1924

Everybody Loves My Baby (m. Spencer Williams, w. Jack Palmer)

• Everybody Loves My Baby — separate feature page

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1926

Basin Street Blues (Spencer Williams) – The song was introduced in 1928 by Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five. The first hit came in 1931 with a recording by The Charleston Chasers, directed by Benny Goodman with vocal by Jack Teagarden.

• See the page 1926 selected standards and hits, part 2

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I’ve Found a New Baby (Spencer Williams, Jack Palmer)

• See the page 1926 selected standards and hits, part 2

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1927

Lonesome Lovesick Blues (Spencer Williams)

Josephine Baker – recorded January 1927, Paris

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1928(?)

Mahogany Hall Stomp (Spencer Williams) – copyright date unknown — recorded by Clarence Williams in 1928, and by Louis Armstrong in 1929

Louis Armstrong recordings include the following:

Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five

• • 5 March 1929 New York, NY

Louis Armstrong and his Orchestra

• • 28 Jan 1933 Chicago, IL

• • 18 May 1936 New York, NY
    

George Lewis New Orleans Jazz Band — undated footage apparently from the early to mid 1960s

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Wynton Marsalis Quartet – Dec 1996

the provider attaches this information

The Wynton Marsalis Quartet live on TV in December of 1996, playing a Louis Armstrong tribute (Mahogany Hall Stomp). The show was an ABC prime-time special called “A Celebration of America’s Music”, and I believe it was a benefit concert for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. Wynton’s band included:
Marcus Roberts – piano; Reginald Veal – bass; Lewis Nash – drums

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Fireworks (Spencer Williams)

Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five — Louis Armstrong, t / Fred Robinson, tb / Jimmy Strong, cl, ts / Earl Hines, p, v / Mancy Cara, bj / Zutty Singleton, d. Chicago, 27 June 1928

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You Gotta Give Me Some (Spencer Williams)

Bessie Smith (v), Clarence Williams (p), Eddie Lang (Guitar)

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1936

When Lights Are Low (Spencer Williams, Benny Carter)

Benny Carter and his Swing Quartet, featuring vocalist Elizabeth Welch

Video provider Julian Dyer attaches the following information,

Recorded in London, 20 June 1936. During his European sojourn in the late 1930s, Carter had six recording sessions in London, two of which were of his “Swing Quartet”.

Benny Carter, t-cl-as-ts; Gene Rogers, p; Bernard Addison, g; Wally Morris, sb; George Elrick, d; Elizabeth Welch, v.

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Lionel Hampton – undated; followed by In a Sentimental Mood performed by Django Reinhardt and the QHCF – recorded 26 April 1937

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Miles Davis – track 6 of the album Blue Haze (1954). The track is from one of two sessions on 19 May 1953 and 15 March 1954 from which came all but the first track.

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