Jazz great Williams eulogized

Thursday, April 8, 1999 | 10:35 a.m.

In the song "Did I Ever Really Live?" jazz legend Joe Williams sang a haunting lyric: "Your days begin to slip away too fast, too fast. Too soon you hear a distant drum."

Williams, 80, heard that final drum beat on March 29, when he collapsed while walking home from Sunrise Hospital where he was being treated for a respiratory ailment.

When members of the overflow crowd of mourners at the First Church of Religious Science heard a recording of Williams' smooth baritone voice singing that song during his memorial service Wednesday, some wiped tears from their eyes while others smiled and nodded.

Any big jazz fan will tell you that Williams' golden voice often brought out a wide range of emotions in people.

"Joe was incapable of hitting a sour note in life or in his music," longtime friend Bob Udkoff said in his eulogy. "An interviewer recently asked Joe when he was going to quit. Joe said: 'When I start to sing off key.' He never did."

Williams, a Las Vegas resident for 31 years, has been called the best male jazz singer in recorded music history.

Nearly 400 mourners, including an array of celebrities and musicians, packed the facility on East Harmon Avenue and another 200 listened to the services from seats that were set up in the church courtyard.

"What a magnificent life and spirit that is Joe Williams," the Rev. Richard Walter, a longtime friend, said, noting that on occasion Williams sang "The Lord's Prayer" and "Amazing Grace" during Sunday services at the church. "Our lives have been enriched by his presence."

The list of notables attending the services included entertainer and Las Vegas resident Robert Goulet, who delivered a funny and touching tribute to Williams. Jazz singers Nancy Wilson and Diane Schuur performed a capella. The Cunninghams and the Radiant Faces Choir also gave musical tributes during the 1 1/2-hour service.

Jazz musicians in the crowd included trombonist Al Gray, a longtime member of the Count Basie Orchestra, with whom Williams rose to stardom in the 1950s.

Williams' longtime manager John Levy and conductor Johnny Pate were present, as were entertainers Pete Barbuti, Sonny King, Sweet Louie and Sonny Charles of The Checkmates and Bubba Knight of Gladys Knight and the Pips.

A box-shaped urn featuring a sketch of a golfer held Williams' cremains beneath a large photo of the singer. Williams was an avid golfer who had an 18 handicap.

Goulet was Williams' frequent golf partner and shared some humorous moments on the links.

"When he was lucky enough to drive the ball more than 200 yards, Joe's backside would rise three inches and he would sprout peacock feathers," Goulet mused.

After a round of golf at the posh Shadow Creek course, the two were riding home in Williams' car when a jazz instrumental came on the radio and Goulet started singing.

"I thought I was singing quite well (but when the song was over) Joe said: 'Yup, sounds just like a white man,' " Goulet said to a round of laughter from the mourners.

"I regret not having a last goodbye -- a hug, a laugh, a good cry," Goulet said, fighting back tears as he read a letter he wrote to Williams just hours after his death.

Udkoff noted that "Joe's head never got as big as his talent. He never underestimated his audience, whether it was at an inner-city club or at the White House." Williams performed for President Clinton in 1993.

Udkoff recalled Williams' "booming laugh" and noted that he was a "gentle man and a gentleman in every sense of the word."

The ceremony ended with a standing ovation -- the highest praise a performer can receive from an audience.

Williams was born in rural Georgia but raised by his mother and an aunt in urban Chicago, where his singing career began in nightclubs and on live radio in the 1930s.

At one time or another, Williams performed with every great jazz singer of the last half of the 20th century, including Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Lena Horne and Sarah Vaughan.

Williams' signature song was "Every Day I Have the Blues" with the Count Basie Orchestra.

Williams made his debut singing for tips at Chicago's Kitty Davis nightclub, where he cleaned restrooms to get the opportunity to perform.

In the 1940s, after Williams was turned down for the Army Air Corps, which did not accept blacks at the time, he sang for the troops and did military hospital engagements.

In 1950, Williams sang with Basie for the first time at the Brass Rail in Chicago. Four years later Williams started performing as a permanent member of the Basie band. He stayed with the group for the next seven years, making more than a dozen recordings.

As a solo performer beginning in the early 1960s, Williams made more than three dozen recordings and appeared on every major variety television talk show. He was on "The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson" more than 50 times.

In the 1980s, Williams had a recurring role as Bill Cosby's father-in-law on "The Cosby Show."

From 1955 to the late 1980s, Williams was a regular performer at the annual Newport Jazz Festival, which was broadcast over the Voice of America. As a result, he developed a whole new crop of fans behind the Iron Curtain.

After three failed marriages, Williams in 1957 met Jillean Milne, a British citizen living in New York. They married in 1965. She is his only survivor.

At his peak, Williams performed worldwide, working as many as 46 weeks a year. He performed in many of the major Las Vegas Strip lounges during the 1960s.

In recent years, though still heavily in demand internationally, Williams squeezed into his schedule concerts for the Las Vegas Jazz Society at UNLV's Artemus Ham Hall.

Williams won a Grammy award, was the recipient of two honorary doctorate degrees, got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and gave numerous charity concerts.