Search - Bert Williams :: Bert Williams: His Final Releases, 1919-1922

Last, but not his least!

Robert Badgley | London,Ontario,Canada | 05/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This groundbreaking CD of Bert Williams last recordings may have been his last but certainly not his least.All are wonderful numbers but tunes like"Everybody wants a key to my Cellar","It's nobody's business but my Own" and "Not Lately" are particular stand outs.
Many of the songs Bert recorded and some he didn't were done years later by many artists but one in particular stands out and that's Phil Harris.Phil had grown up as a youngster hearing these songs which he loved and he developed a similar singing/talking style like Bert.Many of Berts' songs,like those of other countless vaudvillians of the period like Sophie Tucker,Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson,were those that told stories that were either outright hilarious or semi-serious with tongue firmly planted in cheek.Either way the audiences of the day ate them up.Personally I have always loved this form of song done properly and Bert certainly was a master of its' form.
Mr.Williams was born in the Carribean in the late 1800s and his family moved to California when he was still a youngster.The entertainment bug grabbed him early on and after a time he bumped into a fellow performer by the name of George Walker.
The two developed this dandy/moax routine which is a form that still inspires and entertains even today.Walker would usually play the role of a dandy,high roller,con-man,etc. who would set about to outsmart the moax or unsuspecting victim played by Williams not always successfully.
There were many variations on this theme but it was VERY successful for them.So much so they eventually produced their own plays in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s.Besides becoming famous world-wide they were most noted for being major exponents of the popular dance craze the cake-walk and the first black artists signed to a major record label,Victor,then Columbia.
They even appeared before the King and Queen of England in a command performance.
In 1911 George Walker passed away from syphilis predeceasing his wife by only about three years.This left Bert with a large hole in his life both personally and professionally.He had always relied on George to take care of the business side of their work and to bounce ideas off of and now without him he drifted awhile trying to get back a sense of himself and to develop a viable character.
Eventually he realized his audiences wouldn't settle for anything less than something close to what he had already been doing all along.By the time he was out on his own a few years he had developed certain trademark routines and songs that audiences wouldn't let him offstage until they had seen and heard him do.His song "Nobody" and "The Gambler" being two of many.
Since his joining of Ziegfeld Follies in 1910,the first black in a major production,Bert realized that this venue with its' time constraints as just one performer among many also did little to enable him to stretch his character.These types of shows were always deliberately structured so that although a performers' time on stage may be limited it took into account(in the overall time frame) the fact that most of the established stars would get encores.And Bert rarely failed to get them,in spades.
With all of Berts' fame it never failed to cut him to the quick the very real prejudice he would experience by his peers and especially by those outside show business.How could a man feted by a King and Queen and seemingly loved by so many be treated at times in such a deplorable manner?
Born in another country he came to America,settled and got into the entertainment world.But he soon realized that the only way he was going to get anywhere was to study the American blacks with their own particular affectations,characteristics and mannerisms and portray them in this way in his own style as long as that style was of the acceptable parameters of the times.This included applying burnt cork and "blacking up".He,his partner along with countless other acts of the day whether white or black all did the same thing and like Berts' their audiences would have them no other way.
When he passed away in 1922 due to complications with pneumonia the world lost one of its' brightest stars.Bert Williams was an original and a singular talent the likes of which we had never seen before or will ever see again.
Archeophone records has completed the series(three so far,possibly more to come if any other material should surface) of a long overdue star of the first magnitude.Each CD in the series,as in this one,contains the usual copious liner notes and details on not only his recorded material but the man himself.Along the way there are articles written by Bert and his former partner George Walker so you can get a better feel for these men more up close and personal.
I cannot say enough about this series nor the company that produced them.They deserve our congratulations and our support.
Because in the end it brings back into the spotlight a man long forgotten,misunderstood and lost......but now thankfully found.
Encore!!"

Great Laughs from the granddaddy of Black comedy

Andre M. | Mt. Pleasant, SC United States | 02/20/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Long before Richard Pryor, Martin Lawrence, Redd Foxx, or Dick Gregory were even thinking about being born, Bert Williams was the pioneer. The long-unavailable enclosed songs bring him back from histrocial obscusrity.The songs are great for a laugh. Bert's specialty was songs in which he told funny stories. In "I'm Gonna Quit On Saturday," he refuses to work on a circus train with a lion cage because "Lions love dark meat." In "Lonesome Alimony Blues," his imprisoned character "don't need to know what the time is, 'cause you ain't going noplace." In "Bring Back Those Wonderful Days," he longs for the removal of "Tip-requesting waiters and those red-flag agitators." "Brother Low Down" will give you a good sermon ""once he's good and liquored-up." etc. etc.I have spoken with very old people who remembered loving these tunes as children and you can see why. Louis Armstrong recorded Williams' "Elder Eatmore Sermons" in 1938 (see "Louis and the Good Book"). Jazz comedian Louis Jordan's father had known Bert Williams and passed down his influence to his son (in fact, Louis Jordan billed himself for a while as "The Modern Bert Williams)." However, modern listeners and audiophiles should beware of the surface noise and static due to the age of these recordings. But once you get past that technicality, imagine that grandma and grandpa are cranking up the old victrola and enjoy."

Truly BRILLIANT!!!

Emmett Miller | Seattle, WA | 01/10/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bert Williams was truly the only brilliant vaudeveille singer, he was one of the BIG THREE(the other two being Al Jolson & Eddie Cantor). As where Cantor & Jolson had energy and were loud and annoying, in a good and bad way, Williams was lazy sounding, the way balcks were thought of back then. He makes wonderful points, and even mocks both balcks and white's. This is truly one brilliant man captured on a cd!!! Some highlights are Elder Eatmore's Serman on Throwing Stone's(later recorded by Lousi Armstrong), and You Can't Trust Nobody, as well as the comical Eve Cost Adam Just One Bone. This cd is both hilarious, serious, politacal, politcally incorrect(who really cares), and poigniant, all at once. Williams really makes you stop and think about how times wer, and makes you forget how much worst they are today!!! A masterpiece by a mastermind. Even two tough jazz critics Scott Yanow, and Will Friedwald have praised Williams recordings! A must buy!! ESSENTIAL desert island music!"