Fifty years later he reminisced about that first exposure to the blues in a
The New York Times interview: "In Chicago in those days, we had what were called breakfast dances. The shows would start at six in the morning and be over by eight. The one where I first heard Big Joe Turner was at a club that seated maybe 500. Joe Turner got on the stage, and even though he had no microphone, I could hear him as clear as day singing, Oh baby, you sure look good to me." Williams noted that Turner had an urban, as opposed to a country, sound and was the first blues singer "who made the words discernible."
Williams joined tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins's band in 1941, but it broke up soon after. In need of a steady job, he worked as the stage doorman at the Regal Theater in Chicago, where he met the leading jazz and rhythm-and-blues musicians who were on tour. When jazz vibraphonist Lionel Hampton played the Regal with his band, Williams joined in, singing side-by-side with noted jazz vocalist Dinah Washington.
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