He started playing bass while serving in the Navy, playing in the Ships Company A Band at Camp Robert Smalls, which was led by Leonard Bowden and included Clark Terry, and several other musicians recruited from civilian dance bands."Willie Smith of Lunceford Crew Is among others Starred Here." Chicago Defender 15 May 1943: p. 19.Floyd, Samuel A. “An Oral History: The Great Lakes Experience,” in The Black Experience in Music 11.1: (Spring 1983): pp. 41-61. In the latter half of the 1940s, he played with Dexter Gordon, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald; in 1950 he and Oscar Peterson recorded duets, and he also played with Peterson and Charlie Smith as a trio. He was married to Minnie Walton (born Millicent Aitcheson).
