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Henry "Rubberlegs" Williams (July 14, 1907 – October 17, 1962) was an American blues and jazz singer, dancer and occasional female impersonator. A star of

Vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

, he is probably best remembered for his singing work with

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...

and

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

, although it was his dancing for which he was renowned in New York City and Boston.

Biography

Williams was born in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

in 1907. He became employed as dancer with Bobby Grant's Female Impersonators in 1919 and became a spectacle. He later won several

Cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Unit ...

and Charleston competitions and other dancing contests and achieved success in

, going on tours with the

Theater Owners Booking Association Theatre Owners Booking Association, or T.O.B.A., was the vaudeville circuit for African American performers in the 1920s. The theaters mostly had white owners, though about a third of them had black owners. These included the restored Morton Theat ...

. He got his nickname "Rubberlegs" because he danced as if he had legs made of rubber. In 1933 he appeared in the short film ''

Smash Your Baggage Smash Your Baggage is a 1932 Vitaphone pre-Code short musical comedy film released by Warner Bros., as part of their Vitaphone Varieties series on October 29, 1932. Directed by Roy Mack, the film features African American performers Carrie Marrie ...

'', and appeared in shows like the "Cotton Club Parade" and "Blackbirds of 1933". He was a regular performer at The Cotton Club and the Apollo in Harlem, and at the Southland ballroom in Boston, and according to Count Basie, he became the venue's most prominent attraction with his elaborates dances. He also appeared as a singer with prominent artists such

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 19 ...

Fletcher Henderson James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical ...

Chick Webb William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader. Early life Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. The ...

and

, and sang on the first recording of

's " Hot House" on April 1, 1945 in New York City. On Williams' April 24, 1945

Savoy Savoy (; )  is a cultural-historical region in the Western Alps. Situated on the cultural boundary between Occitania and Piedmont, the area extends from Lake Geneva in the north to the Dauphiné in the south and west and to the Aosta Vall ...

studio session,

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

played the trumpet for the first time on a recording. The session resulted in two singles: Savoy 564 "That's The Stuff You Gotta Watch / Pointless Mama Blues" and Savoy 5516 "Deep Sea Blues / Bring It On Home". These songs were later re-released in 1990 on a compilation album, ''

First Miles ''First Miles'' is a compilation album by American jazz musician Miles Davis, released on July 12, 1990 by Savoy Records. The album includes tracks from Davis's first recording session, backing singer Rubberlegs Williams on April 24, 1945, and t ...

''. A larger than life character both on and off stage, Williams was seen as the "embodiment of the raucous style that had dominated the black variety stage" at the time. During a January 1945 recording session with Continental, he once screeched his way through a session after becoming "wildly disoriented after unwittingly ingesting an enormous dose of

Benzedrine Amphetamine (contracted from alpha- methylphenethylamine) is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant that is used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), narcolepsy, and obesity; it is also used to treat binge e ...

", after Charlie Parker spiked his coffee with three tablets. However, Williams stood out in the jazz community for refusing to consume alcohol, smoke or take drugs which made him highly respected and liked, especially among the black community of New York City. He was also not especially keen with the development of

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

's "off playing", and once memorably barked at Dizzy Gillespie during his intoxicated recording session: "Miss Gillespie, if you play another of them bad notes, I'm gonna beat your brains out". Williams died in New York City in October 1962.

References

External links

Rubberlegs Williams
at

Discogs Discogs ( ; short for " discographies") is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. Database contents are user-generated, and described in ''T ...

Smash Your Luggage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Rubberlegs 1907 births 1962 deaths American blues singers American jazz singers American male dancers 20th-century American singers 20th-century American dancers