Black Benny
Black Benny Williams was a drummer from New Orleans.
He grew up in a rough poor African-American neighborhood in the Third Ward of New Orleans known as "The Battleground". Benny was in and out of jails all his life. In addition to his work as a drummer Black Benny worked as a bouncer and a prizefighter. An early colleague of Louis Armstrong, Black Benny is referred to in Armstrong's autobiography and helped look after Armstrong during his childhood. Sidney Bechet talks about Black Benny Williams in his autobiography, as does Jelly Roll Morton in his Library of Congress interviews.
