FRANKLIN, WILLIAM

FRANKLIN, WILLIAM. Jazz/operatic singer (1906 in Memphis, Tennessee). His family moved to Chicago, Illinois, when he was a child, and he received his musical training in the public schools there. He played in musical groups at Wendell Phillips High School, where he was coached by Mildred Bryant Jones . Thereafter he played trombone and/or sang with various jazz groups, including Clarence Jones, Dave Peyton, Stanley (Fess) Williams , and Earl Hines (1928-35). In 1935 he...