J. Mayo “Ink” Williams (1894–1980) was an influential African American record producer, talent scout, and music executive who played a major role in documenting blues and jazz during the 1920s through the 1940s. Born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, Williams attended Brown University, where he excelled in track and football. After college, he became one of the early African American players in professional football, playing for the Hammond Pros and other teams from 1921 to 1926.
Williams entered the recording business around 1924, when he became a talent scout and producer for Paramount Records’ race-record series in Chicago. He helped discover and record numerous important Black artists, including Ma Rainey, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Ida Cox, Trixie Smith, Tampa Red, Papa Charlie Jackson, King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, and Thomas A. Dorsey. His work made him one of the most important figures in the development of the race-record market.
In 1927, Williams left Paramount and established the Chicago Record Company, with Black Patti Records as its label. Although Black Patti lasted less than a year, it issued approximately 55 records featuring blues, jazz, spirituals, sermons, and vaudeville performances.
Williams later worked for Vocalion, Brunswick, and Decca, where he headed the race-record department. He also operated several independent labels, including Ebony Records, which recorded a young Muddy Waters in the late 1940s. Williams died in Chicago in 1980 and was posthumously inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2004.
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[…] Patti Records was a short-lived American record label established in Chicago in 1927 by J. Mayo “Ink” Williams, a prominent African American record producer who had previously worked as a recording director for […]