Emery Williams, Jr. was already an experienced
entertainer and piano player when he came to Chicago in 1956
from Detroit. He was originally from Haynes, Arkansas where
he was born on October 26, 1931, and spent his childhood in
southern Illinois. He had led his own band, the Blues Chaps,
since he was 19, playing clubs in Pontiac and Flint, Michigan.
For three years they were the house band at The Circle Club
in Detroit, backing touring stars like Roscoe Gordon, Eddie
Boyd, John Lee Hooker and Amos Milburn. Milburn was Junior's
idol, and his humorous blues about the evils of alcohol inspired
some of Junior's best songwriting.
Blues musician Eddie Boyd first brought
Junior to Chicago in the early 1950s, hoping to line up a contract
for him with Chess Records. The Chess deal didn't work out at
first, but Junior fell in with J.T Brown, the city's leading
blues sax man. They landed a gig at Club 99, then at the legendary
Squeeze Club. Junior quickly won a following with his percussive
piano and energetic stage show. He paired up with harp man Little
Mack Simmons, and they settled into a steady gig as house band
at Cadillac Baby's South Side club. He recorded his first single,
"Money Tree" backed with "So Unhappy" in
1960 for the Bea & Baby label. That record marked the first
appearance of "Detroit Junior;" before that time he
had been known as Little Junior Williams, and when the record
became a local hit, the nickname stuck.
Chess Records, sensing they had missed
something, signed Junior, but subsequent singles didn't sell,
and he cut for Foxy, CL and Palos before waxing his next hit,
the original "Call My Job," on U.S.A., in 1965. The
flipside, "The Way I Feel," a spontaneous and sensitive
piano solo, proved that Junior had talent for deep blues as
well as novelty tunes.
During the '60s, Junior gigged with Mack
Simmons, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay and Johnny Twist. From 1968 on,
he toured and recorded with the late Howlin' Wolf, playing everywhere
from college auditoriums to Big Duke's Flamingo. When Wolf died
in 1976, Junior stuck with the band, The Wolf Gang, under the
leadership of sax man Eddie Shaw for a number of years.
Detroit Junior's first full album under
his own name, "Chicago Urban Blues" (on the Blues
On Blues label) came out in the early 1970s. Alligator Records
included four of his songs on the "Living Chicago Blues,
Volume 6" anthology in 1980. The album helped establish
him as a successful solo performing career. From 1995 through
2004, Detroit Junior released four CDs under his own name, three
for Blue Suit Records: "Turn Up The Heat" (1995),
"Take Out The Time" (1997), and "Live At The
Toledo Museum Of Modern Art" (2004). His most recent CD
was 2004's "Blues On The Internet" on Delmark.
In the last few years, Junior often appeared
on the Chicago's North Side at clubs like Kingston Mines, even
after losing a leg to diabetes. He was filmed for Martin Scorsese's
PBS series, "The Blues," and kept on writing and performing
up until his death.
Funeral will be held at 1:30pm on Thursday
August 18 at A.R. Leake Funeral Home, 7838 S. Cottage Grove,
Chicago, IL. Visitation will be on Wednesday, August 17 from
6:00pm until 10:00pm. Wake will be Thursday, August 18 at 1:00pm.
Burial follows at Mt. Hope Cemetery in
Alsip, IL.
