Claude “Fiddler” Williams (1908 to 2004) played jazz violin in Kansas City for 75 years. He recorded with Andy Kirk’s Twelve Clouds of Joy in 1928, played guitar in Count Basie’s band in 1936, and spent decades beside pianist Jay McShann. He kept playing into his nineties and received an NEA National Heritage Fellowship in 1998, right after his 90th birthday.
Why Williams matters
Bluegrass and contest fiddlers borrow from swing all the time. Williams is the swing they borrow from. He played blues and jazz on the fiddle with a walking, horn-like phrasing that Texas-style players and bluegrass improvisers have chased for decades. He proved that a fiddle could take a full chorus in a jazz band and hold its own against saxophones. If you want to play a swing break over a bluegrass song, his records are the source.
Life and career
Claude Gabriel Williams was born on February 22, 1908, in Muskogee, Oklahoma. By age ten he played several instruments in his brother-in-law’s string band. He heard Joe Venuti play a concert in Muskogee, and that set him on jazz violin. In the late 1920s he toured the Black vaudeville circuits.
In 1927 he moved to Kansas City and joined the Twelve Clouds of Joy, then led by Terrence Holder and soon after by Andy Kirk, with Mary Lou Williams on piano. The band recorded for Brunswick in 1928. He later worked in Chicago with Nat “King” Cole and Eddie Cole. In 1936 he joined Count Basie’s band as its guitarist, and he was the first guitarist to record with Basie. During his time with Basie, readers of Downbeat magazine voted him best guitarist. In 1937 he went back to the violin and formed his own group.
The 1950s brought work with Eddie Vinson, Hank Jones, and Jay McShann. His long partnership with McShann carried him through the next decades. He recorded Call for the Fiddler for SteepleChase in 1976 and Kansas City Giants for Big Bear in 1980. He played with Charlie Christian, Charlie Parker, and Art Tatum along the way.
Late in life the honors came. He played in the Broadway show Black and Blue in 1989. That year the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame made him its first inductee. In the 1990s he played Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Monterey and Nice jazz festivals, and President Clinton’s inauguration. In 1998 he received the NEA National Heritage Fellowship and played at the White House with Bucky Pizzarelli and Keter Betts. His last album, Swingin’ the Blues, came out on Bullseye Blues in 2000. He died on April 25, 2004, in Kansas City, at age 96.
Playing style
Williams played the violin like a Kansas City horn. His lines walked and swung. He built solos on the blues, with bent notes, slides, and riffs that repeat and shift over the changes. His tone was warm and a little rough, closer to a tenor sax than to a concert violinist.
He also thought like a guitarist, which he was. His comping and his sense of chord changes came from years of playing rhythm in big bands. That is why his solos land on strong chord tones and never lose the form. He said that whatever ran through his mind, he could play on the violin.
Influences and legacy
Joe Venuti was the spark. Stéphane Grappelli was his peer across the Atlantic. His bandmates included Mary Lou Williams, Count Basie, Jay McShann, and, in the 1990s, guitarists like Bucky Pizzarelli.
His legacy in fiddle circles runs through swing. Texas-style contest fiddlers like Johnny Gimble and Benny Thomasson pulled swing ideas into their playing, and Williams’ records sit in the same swing tradition they drew on. He also played the Indiana Fiddlers’ Gathering and the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife, which put him in front of old-time and bluegrass players. Vassar Clements and Darol Anger both work the jazz and fiddle seam that Williams lived in for 75 years.
Essential recordings
Call for the Fiddler (SteepleChase, 1976) Kansas City Giants (Big Bear, 1980) Live at J’s, Parts 1 and 2 (Arhoolie, 1989) King of Kansas City (Progressive, 1996) Swingin’ the Blues (Bullseye Blues, 2000)
Awards and honors
Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, first inductee (1989) NEA National Heritage Fellowship (1998)
Watch and listen
Williams in 1990, at age 82. Watch how he builds a solo from blues riffs and keeps the swing feel with the bow.
Williams plays A Smooth One. Listen to the horn-like phrasing.
What to learn from Williams
Learn a 12-bar blues in the key of G on the fiddle, the way he would have played it. Start with one riff and move it through the I, IV, and V chords. The technique to steal is his slide. He approaches a note from a half step below with the bow already moving, so the slide sounds like a horn. Try it on the third of each chord in a slow blues. Then take that same slide into a bluegrass song in G. It works.
Sources
Claude “Fiddler” Williams, National Endowment for the Arts Claude Williams (musician), Wikipedia Claude Williams, Discogs
Related players
See the fiddle players hub and the fiddle guide for more on swing in fiddle music. Joe Venuti inspired him. Stéphane Grappelli was his jazz peer. Johnny Gimble and Vassar Clements brought the same swing ideas into western swing and bluegrass.