Douglas Williams

One of American culture's well kept secrets, Memphis clarinetist Douglas Williams made a couple of dozen records for the Victor label during the years 1928-1930 and promptly disappeared from the collective radar of jazz for 70 years. In 2000, Jazz Oracle spilled the beans by revealing his existence to the world with a beautifully wrought collection of his complete recorded works. Active as a professional musician before the 1920s, he composed the "Hooking Cow Blues," which was recorded by W.C. Handy's Orchestra of Memphis in 1917. Williams sounded a lot like Johnny Dodds, but ...