Forgotten Arrangers — George “The Fox” Williams (Part 3)
Even though he was doing a lot of writing for Ray Anthony, he obviously wasn’t exclusive to him. Here is a track from a date with Little Esther Phillips from 1952, Ramblin’ Blues. The tenor player is none other than Ben Webster.
From a date with Charlie Ventura, here is My One and Only Love, a brand new song in 1953. Note that Williams is not given credit on the label.
But the Ventura session for Coral obviously impressed the label owners, because he did some dates for them under his own name which included some big band R&B.
Whamboogie has an all-star band. Soloists are George Barnes (guitar), Sam “The Man” Taylor (tenor sax), Kai Winding (trombone) and Jonah Jones (trumpet).
From the same date, The Rompin’ Stomper, with Al Klink trading with Taylor, Jordan trading with Jones, and Winding trading with Urbie Green. Note that the band had a bass sax, not a baritone as the bottom.
For Woody Herman’s Herd, he wrote a feature for drummer Chuck Flores:
Jackie Gleason, of course, was a big TV comedy star. He also began to produce albums of mood or background music. His first album, Music for Lovers Only, was a big seller, and he continued making albums until the late 1960s. The first arranger who worked on these albums was C. Dudley (Pete) King, a legendary arranger who will have his own article in this series. By the end of the decade, Williams was Gleason’s chief arranger, often uncredited. These albums were notable for including Gleason’s favorite musicians, including trumpeter Bobby Hackett, alto saxophonist Toots Mondello, tenor saxophonist Charlie Ventura, trumpeter Charlie Shavers, pianist Hank Jones and more.
He made an album called Riff Jazz, and he later appeared on the Kate Smith TV show on March 7, 1960, where he not only conducted two Williams’ arrangements of his own compositions, but even conducted for the star of the show. He did not have a TV series of his own at the time, and this is one of the rare appearances he made to plug one of his own albums.
Williams made several albums under his own name during this period. Here the complete album We Could Make Such Beautiful Music.
He made an album in honor of Jimmie Lunceford, Rhythm was his Business: A Salute to Jimmie Lunceford.
When I began these explorations in the work of George Williams, I noted that he was responsible for the arrangement and conducting of a famous track recorded during the 1960s. Here is Barbra Streisand’s Happy Days are Here Again released in 1962. [Ed. note: George Williams worked on 3 singles during that period before Barbra’s first album: Happy Days are Here Again / When the Sun Comes Out and Lover Come Back to Me.]
Williams went with Gleason when the comedian moved his TV show to Miami, Florida. He died in Florida in 1988.
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