Special Treatment : Jazz: Joe Williams, who sings in Irvine tonight, says that since King verdict, he has quit playing around with 'Every Day.'

By BILL KOHLHAASE

Oct. 10, 1992 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

Even though it was penned by Memphis Slim, the song “Every Day I Have the Blues” has been Joe Williams’ since fans at Chicago’s long-gone club DeLisa began requesting it from the brassy-toned vocalist some 40 years ago. Why, even the title of the singer’s 1985 biography, “Every Day: The Story of Joe Williams” underscores the connection between the man and his song.

So how does he keep it sounding fresh after all these years? In a Times interview in the late ‘80s, Williams, who performs at a fund-raiser tonight for the Irvine Barclay Theatre, said: “It’s the treatment. I’m with Miles Davis on this. I think the treatment of a song is the thing that interests me more than anything else. Like Frank Sinatra, who gives such marvelous treatments. His arrangements are good, the orchestrations are super. You can just feel the music.”

And to that end, Williams has toyed with the tune’s presentation, playing with the lyrics while adding twists and counterpoints to the accompaniment. Indeed, on his 1987 album “Every Night,” recorded live at Hollywood’s Vine St. Bar & Grill, Williams injects new life into the tune by singing it over an arrangement of Miles Davis’ “All Blues,” giving it a pleasing blend of moods and rhythms.

But times have changed.

In a recent phone conversation from his home in Las Vegas, the 73-year-old Williams says he isn’t playing around with the tune any more.

In the aftermath of “that damn (Rodney) King verdict,” he said, “I’ve stopped having fun with it. I just began to sing the song straight, the way I started to sing it, with the same conviction that I had in the ‘50s. Things that I used to stick in--like lines from ‘See See Rider,’ and other bits--I don’t do that any more. After the verdict, it’s no laughing matter.”

He still uses the “All Blues” arrangement, and there is one embellishment that he has retained, something he started using in the late ‘60s. “Sometimes over the top, I’ll stick in the lines ‘Oh say can you see/how the po-lice treat me’; but gently, very gently. It depends how I feel.

“It’s a hell of a thing,” says Williams, “when you realize you’re not safe anywhere, just like when I was traveling back in the ‘50s. Everybody in the country was upset by that verdict. We should be dealing with one another on the same level: I wish you well; what I want for you is the same that I want for myself.”

A record of how Williams originally sang his signature tune can be found on “Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings” from 1955. Comparing that recording to the version on the 1987 album shows that Williams has lost little in the way of vocal strength. If anything, the singer is even more stalwart in his delivery while his phrasing shows a natural confidence that is smart and sophisticated.

Williams’ newest release, “Ballad and Blues Master,” comes from the same 1987 session as “Every Night” and includes another tune with “Every Day” in the title: “Every Day (I’ll Fall in Love).” Williams says he began singing the song before “Every Day I Have the Blues.”

“I used to do that tune in Chicago in the late ‘30s with Jimmie Noone’s orchestra. We did it for dances and radio broadcasts, but I haven’t used it much since then.”

Also on the album is the seldom-heard “Dinner for One Please, James,” (written by Michael Carr, a songwriter best known for “South of the Border”). The melancholy number, which tells the story of a man informing his butler that his wife has left him, was one of the first Williams ever sang with an orchestra. (For tonight’s Irvine show, Williams will be backed by pianist Gerald Wiggins, bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Paul Humphries.)

“I used to go to dances at Warrick Hall in Chicago when I was 15 or 16 years old,” he says, “and once there was a band there led by a guy named Francois who was preparing to go to New York and was auditioning singers. So, on a dare from my buddies, I got up and sang “Dinner for One, James” and Francois wanted me to join the band. But my mother said, ‘No way.’ She wanted me to stay and finish high school.”

The value his mother placed on his education still motivates the singer. Though he has cut back his schedule in recent years, Williams recently found time to spend three days in residence at the University of Florida.

“They really had a good, swinging band there,” he says. “I tried to impress the students with the importance of making a professional presentation, no matter what end of the business they’re in. That’s the important thing, to first make a decision about what it is you want to do, which end of the business you’ll commit to.”

Williams says he didn’t make that decision himself until 1948. “It came time to change, to get serious,” he says. “I was just having fun up until then, traveling around and singing. Then suddenly I realized that I was meant to do this thing, that I was meant to be a singer.”

He gives the same advice to anyone who asks. “I was sitting in a dressing room with Harry Connick Jr. a few years ago, and he asked me what I thought he should do. He was doing it all: pop, jazz, big band stuff, arranging, composing, singing, playing the piano. I told him to focus and to make sure he enjoyed whatever it was he focused on because he’d be doing it a long, long time.”

Williams credits Connick with bringing a more youthful audience to their kind of music. With rap and pop music drifting further from the art of jazz, Williams says the audience will always be there. “The kids grow up,” he says. “The music stays constant. As they get older and more sophisticated, their tastes change, and they come to us.”

These days, Williams spends a lot of time listening to music--Lena Horne, Diane Schuur, Stan Getz, Phil Woods--and playing golf (he claims a 13 handicap). He doesn’t mind the termination of “The Cosby Show,” in which he played Claire Huxtable’s father.

“The show was great, but it was kind of confining. After being tied to something for a while, you get anxious to move on. A lot of people like routine. Others like spontaneity. Me, I’m a free spirit.”

Joe Williams sings tonight at 7:30 at the Irvine Barclay Theatre, 4242 Campus Drive, Irvine. Proceeds will be used to support programs sponsored by the theater. Tickets, including admission to a party on the outdoor plaza in front of the theater, are $100. (714) 854-4607.