Jay Mayo "Ink" Williams (September 25, 1894 – January 2, 1980) was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music.

Some historians have claimed that Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of talented African-American musicians on recording contracts,[1] but in fact it was a racial sobriquet from his football days, when he was a rare Black player on white college and professional teams.

[5] Williams became a talent scout and supervisor of recording sessions in the Chicago area, becoming the most successful blues producer of his time.

He recorded Blind Lemon Jefferson, Tampa Red, Thomas A. Dorsey, Ida Cox, Jimmy Blythe, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, and Freddy Keppard.

[5] Williams' role at Black Patti was to conduct A&R (Artists and Repertoire) activities, which entailed talent scouting, producing, promotion and publishing.

[5] However, after the Wall Street Crash of 1929, record sales plummeted, and Williams found new work as a football coach at Morehouse College in Atlanta.

In 1934, Williams was hired as head of the "race records" department at Decca,[5] where he recorded such musicians as Mahalia Jackson, Alberta Hunter, Blind Boy Fuller, Roosevelt Sykes, Sleepy John Estes, Kokomo Arnold, Peetie Wheatstraw, Bill Gaither, Bumble Bee Slim, Georgia White, Trixie Smith, Monette Moore, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Marie Knight, Tab Smith as well as pioneering the recording of the increasingly popular small group sound with such groups as The Harlem Hamfats.

[5] After a period of freelance producing, he reopened the Ebony label in 1952 and kept it going through the early 1970s, recording Lil Armstrong, Bonnie Lee, Oscar Brown and Hammie Nixon.