WILLIAMS, STANLEY

WILLIAMS, STANLEY (FESS). Jazz clarinetist (10 April 1894 in Danville, Kentucky; 17 December 1975 in New York, New York). He studied violin at an early age. He obtained his musical education at Tuskegee [Alabama] Institute (graduated 1914), where he studied with N. Clark Smith and specialized in clarinet. He taught several years in the public schools of Winchester, Kentucky, where he picked up the nickname Fess, an abbreviation of the word professor. He was active with various dance bands...