Portrait of Cootie Williams

Birthday profile

Cootie Williams

Cootie Williams, American trumpeter and bandleader (died 1985)

Born
July 10, 1911
Died
September 15, 1985
Zodiac sign
Cancer
Birth year
1911

About Cootie Williams

Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams was an American jazz, jump blues, and rhythm and blues trumpeter. When it was over his father asked him what he'd heard and he replied, "Cootie, cootie, cootie." In 1928, he made his first recordings with pianist James P. Williams rose to prominence as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra when the band was playing at the Cotton Club, with which he first performed from 1929 to 1940. In the late 1950s, he formed a small jazz group and recorded a number of albums with Rex Stewart, as well as his own album, Cootie Williams in Hi-Fi (1958). For him, Duke Ellington wrote ''Concerto for Cootie,'' which when lyrics were added became "Do Nothing till You Hear from Me".

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Cootie Williams timeline

  1. When it was over his father asked him what he'd heard and he replied, "Cootie, cootie, cootie." In 1928, he made his first recordings with pianist James P.
  2. Williams rose to prominence as a member of Duke Ellington's orchestra when the band was playing at the Cotton Club, with which he first performed from 1929 to 1940.
  3. In the late 1950s, he formed a small jazz group and recorded a number of albums with Rex Stewart, as well as his own album, Cootie Williams in Hi-Fi (1958).

The world when Cootie Williams was born

Cootie Williams was born in 1911. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1911

  • Best-selling book"The Broad Highway" – Jeffery Farnol

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentFirst Indianapolis 500 race
  • Top headlineTriangle Shirtwaist Factory fire kills 146 workers
  • Technology milestoneFirst transcontinental airplane flight (49 days)
  • World population~1.71B

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderWilliam Howard Taft
  • U.S. population93.4M

1911 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Cootie Williams's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19112026
Population93.4M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz, Wikidata. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.