Biography

Spencer Williams (born October 14, 1889) – a prominent American composer, pianist and songwriter that made a significant contribution to the development of jazz and popular music in the first half of the 20^th century.

The musician was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, a city that is considered the cradle of jazz. It was there that he absorbed the atmosphere of musical culture steeped in blues, ragtime, gospel and African-American musical traditions. Little is known about Williams' childhood and adolescence, but it is believed that he began playing the piano at an early age and received a degree in music from St. Charles University in New Orleans, which helped shape him as a professional musician.

Spencer began performing in Chicago in 1907, and moved to New York around 1916, where he wrote several songs in collaboration with Anton Lada from the band “Louisiana Five”. Among these songs was "Basin Street Blues", one of the most well-known composition dedicated to the famous street in New Orleans. The song became a classic and is still performed all over the world. During World War I, Spencer Williams, together with his friend Fats Waller, composed the song ‘Squeeze Me’. The musician toured Europe with various bands. Williams actively collaborated with music publishers in New York and Chicago. In those years, the music industry was just taking shape, and he was one of the authors who contributed to the development of the mass music market. Many well-known performers and groups of the 1920s and 1930s included Williams' songs in their repertoire. His compositions became jazz standards that were passed down from generation to generation. For example, the legendary orchestras of Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson and others often performed his works.

From 1925 to 1928, Spencer Williams mainly wrote music for Josephine Baker, a popular American-French dancer, singer and actress who performed at the Folies Bergère in Paris. Josephine was one of the most prominent performers of jazz and popular music in the 1920s and 1930s. She often included Spencer's songs in her repertoire, since his compositions perfectly suited her expressive and charismatic style. Thanks to Baker's live performances and her stage charisma, the composition ‘Basin Street Blues’ gained even greater popularity in Europe, especially in France, where it became one of the public's favourite songs. Baker's stage interpretations helped many of Williams' compositions become international jazz standards.

Williams constantly shuttled between New York and the Old World, but in 1932, he decided to finally move to Europe when he married the white English singer Pat Castleton (stage name Agnes Badge). Spencer wrote several songs for Agnes.

Upon learning that they would be unable to have children, Agnes and Spencer adopted two black girls, Linda and Della. In the 1930s, mixed marriages were frowned upon in Europe and even in Great Britain. Agnes's mother did not allow Spencer to live in their house. The couple were forced to leave the UK. In the early 1950s, they moved with their children to Stockholm, Sweden, to live with Agnes' sister Ethel, where they spent most of the rest of their lives. However, Spencer found the cold winters very difficult to bear and in his later years returned to Flushing, one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Queens, located in the north-central part of New York City, where he died on 14 July 1965.

https://dzen.ru/a/ZwyswDA8gSnKDgRR?ysclid=mg54w0ntct682057478
https://m.ok.ru/group/52208181379158/topic/67487982728534
https://translated.turbopages.org/proxy_u/en-ru.ru.856adf85-68da82b8-d6a47386-74722d776562/https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Williams
https://music.apple.com/au/artist/spencer-williams/267811
https://jazzstandards.com/biographies/biography_123.htm