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Ink

The Indelible J. Mayo Williams
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The product of a hardscrabble childhood, J. Mayo "Ink" Williams parlayed an Ivy League education into unlikely twin careers as a foundational producer of Black music and pioneering Black player in the early NFL. Clifford R. Murphy tells the story of an ambitious, upwardly mobile life affected, but never daunted, by white society's racism or the Black community's class tensions. Williams caroused with Paul Robeson, recorded the likes of Ma Rainey and Blind Lemon Jefferson, and lined up against Chicago Bears player-coach George Halas. Though resented by the artists he exploited, Williams combined a rock-solid instinct for what would sell with an ear for music that put him at the forefront of finding, recording, and blending blues and jazz. Murphy charts Williams's wide-ranging accomplishments while providing portraits of the cutthroat recording industry and the possibilities, however constrained, of Black life in the 1920s and 1930s. Vivid and engaging, Ink brings to light the extraordinary journey of a Black businessman and athlete.
Clifford R. Murphy is a musician and ethnomusicologist. He is a founding member of the rock band Say ZuZu, the director of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, and the author of Yankee Twang: Country and Western Music in New England.
Introduction: Black Bottom Chapter 1. Ink Chapter 2. Howard Chapter 3. Brown Chapter 4. Buffalo Soldier Chapter 5. Williams vs. Yale Chapter 6. Alpha Chapter 7. Sambo Chapter 8. Black Swan Chapter 9. Hammond Pro Chapter 10. Paramount Chapter 11. Bronzeville Chapter 12. Mother of the Blues Chapter 13. Bulldog Chapter 14. Blind Lemon Chapter 15. Black Patti Chapter 16. Hokum Chapter 17. Bumble Bee Chapter 18. Maroon Tiger Chapter 19. Sepia Chapter 20. Outskirts Chapter 21. Kingfish Chapter 22.Ebony Chapter 23. Pioneer Postscript: Indelible Notes References Index
"Mayo 'Ink' Williams may be the most important figure you've never heard of from the world of early blues music. In this unprecedented biography, Clifford R. Murphy, with a musician's ear, a writer's touch, and an historian's mastery of subject, brings to life this shape-shifting and monumental figure from the heyday of the blues."--Dave Sheinin, writer, Washington Post
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