[3] Williams grew up in an extended musical family that included his cousin Preservation Hall drummer Josiah "Cie" Frazier.

Three years later Williams was recruited to play with his second cousins Paul Barnes ("Polo") and Lawrence Marrero at the Cadillac Club in the Ninth Ward.

[3] Faculty members included Louis Barbarin, Willie Humphrey, Sr., Clyde Kerr Sr., and Wardell Quezergue.

During this time he played at many of New Orleans' legendary nightclubs including Club Desire, The Hideaway, and the Dew Drop Inn.

[12] Williams appeared as a sideman on recordings from the 1950s through the 1970s, including sessions with Pleasant Joseph (Cousin Joe), Captain John Handy, Kid Howard, Little Sonny Jones, and Freddie Kohlman.

The majority of the songs on the album were recorded at Lu and Charlie's jazz club in New Orleans on March 5, 1974, with a band that included Williams on piano and vocals, Clive Wilson on trumpet, Clarence Ford on clarinet and tenor sax, James Prevost on bass, and Chester Jones on drums.

Also on the disc were four songs recorded in 1963 featuring Williams on piano and vocals, Ernest Poree on alto sax, Narvin Kimball on string bass, and Lloyd Washington on drums.

[5] In 2014 GHB Records released Dave Fat Man Williams- I Ate Up The Apple Tree which adds six additional songs from a 1975 session.

[17][18] A 1981 live set from Femø Island, Denmark featuring Williams, Sammy Rimington and Doc Houlind was released by GBH Records in 1996.

"[5] Williams' signature song "I Ate Up The Apple Tree" was covered by The Dirty Dozen Brass Band on their first album in 1984.

Among the noted musicians Williams performed with in jazz and R&B settings are Louis Cottrell Jr., Lizzie Miles, Wild Bill Davison, Pleasant Joseph (as "Cousin Joe"), Freddie Kohlman, George Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, Paul Barbarin, Louis Barbarin, Kid Howard, Big Joe Turner, Lloyd Price, Kid Thomas Valentine, Bunk Johnson, Harold Battiste, Willie Humphrey, Waldren "Frog" Joseph, Papa Celestin, and Alvin Alcorn.

[6] Tom Sancton, traditional jazz clarinetist and Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities at Tulane University, considered Williams a New Orleans music legend.