Clarence Williams’ tunes became jazz standards!
Clarence Williams was an American jazz pianist, composer, promoter, vocalist, theatrical producer, and publisher.
In his early career, he worked at the local Vaudeville Theatre in New Orleans, honing his skills as a pianist, arranger, and writer.
Touring and recording with some of the most legendary blues artists of his time, Clarence spent time alongside W.C. Handy, Bessie Smith, and Louis Armstrong.
As one of the first composers and publishers of early jazz, he released Baby Won’t You Please Come Home in 1919 and Ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do in 1922.
Both of these tunes are early examples of blues evolving into jazz-blues. For the serious songwriter or improviser, this is a genre that must be studied in great depth, as it’s here we find the very birth of popular music.
Understanding what scales are used, and being able to play over changes like these tunes, really is the bread and butter of any musician’s arsenal. Whenever someone skips this part and jumps straight to rock music, it’s painfully obvious to their peers.
Clarence Williams’ early jazz-blues compositions became some of the very first jazz standards – and the rest is, as they say, history. Or in this case, music history.
Clarence Williams Tunes | Related Pages
Baby Won’t You Please Come Home | Chords + TAB
Learn how to play Baby Won’t You Please Come Home by Clarence Williams using chords, lyrics, a chord chart, and a Spytunes video guitar lesson.
| D7 | B7 | Em7 | A7 |
Baby won’t you please come home, ’cause your mama’s all alone…
Check out the full TAB lesson here: Baby Won’t You Please Come Home (Clarence Williams) Guitar Lesson with TAB.
Clarence Williams on the web
