Rudy Williams
b. 1909, Newark, New Jersey, USA, d. September 1954. Williams played alto saxophone as a child and in the late '30s joined the Savoy Sultans, the very popular band led by Al Cooper at the Savoy Ballroom in Harlem. Williams was one of the Sultans’ principal soloists and was a favourite of the Savoy's discerning patrons. After leaving the Sultans he played in bands led by Oran‘ Hot Lips’ Page, Luis Russell and others. In the mid-40s he was still active in New York, although often with lesser-known bands, and he also played with several leading bop musicians, including Tadd Dameron and Oscar Pettiford. From the end of the '40s into the early '50s he sometimes led bands of his own, playing alto, tenor and baritone saxophones as well as clarinet. Mostly, he worked on the east coast but occasionally toured farther afield, making trips to the west coast (where he played with Gene Ammons) and to US military bases in the Orient with Pettiford. During his career, Williams made several records with the Sultans and with leaders such as Howard McGhee, Dameron, Eddie Lockjaw Davis, Ammons and Johnny Hodges. Although steeped in the music of the swing era and an able performer in jump band tradition, Williams made the transition to bop better than most of his contemporaries. His playing style has been likened to that of Don Byas, another musician who made the adjustment. Williams's career might have developed interestingly had he not drowned accidentally in 1954.