In an era of soul queens who carried themselves like unreachable royalty, Deniece Williams always stood out as an eminently approachable star. Her down-to-earth persona flows from her soaring soprano, which still sounds effortless, ardent and girlish across her more than three octave range. But what really sets apart Niecy (as she’s known to friends and fans) from her soul sisters who gained fame in the 1970s is her knack for finding and writing songs in an array of African-American idioms that fit her voice like a bespoke satin gown.
As a songwriter, producer and bandleader, Williams is an artist utterly at home in her own skin, and she’s maintained a devoted following over the decades by gracefully extending that circle of love far and wide. She arrives in Oakland for three shows at Yoshi’s Dec. 22-23 on the cusp of introducing her next musical chapter with her first album of new material since 2007’s “Love, Niecy Style” (Shanachie).
Excited to introduce fans to her new repertoire, she’s also daunted by the challenge of finding slots for unfamiliar songs when she’s got so many hits in her catalog. “I’d like to do at least one or two of those new songs, but It’s a matter of taking stuff out that people want to hear,” says Williams, 68. “I was performing a few weeks ago, and at the end of the show, someone was yelling ‘Please sing ‘Silly’!” a major hit from 1981.
Her upcoming album “The Melody I Sing” features Williams performing songs inflected by contemporary jazz and blues “mainly because I’ve been around Dave Koz and a lot of the smooth jazz artists,” she says. “The direction is a little different because I’m different, and the music that I’ve been around is different. I don’t want to get stuck imitating myself.”
Born in Gary, Indiana, Williams started performing professionally in Baltimore. She did a few recordings under the Toddlin’ Town label, but by the early 1970s, she was part of the brilliant circle of Los Angeles musicians around Stevie Wonder, touring with his Wonderlove band and contributing background vocals on a series of classic albums, including 1972’s “Talking Book,” 1974’s “Fulfillingness’ First Finale” and 1976’s “Songs in the Key of Life.”
About a month before Wonder unveiled his eagerly anticipated bicentennial masterpiece, Wilson released her debut album, “This Is Niecy” (Columbia), establishing herself as a rising star. Produced by Earth, Wind & Fire’s Maurice White, the album included her breakthrough single “Free,” which she co-wrote.
Williams credits her Wonder years with teaching her about how to put a song together. “I was always writing poetry in high school,” she recalls. “When I got with Stevie, I realized poetry plus music equals song. It was really with him that I began to hone my skills as a songwriter.”
For the next decade, Williams seemed to be everywhere, singing on Roberta Flack’s 1977 album “Blue Lights in the Basement” and the jazz fusion supergroup Weather Report’s 1978 album “Mr. Gone.” She scored a disco hit with 1979’s “I’ve Got the Next Dance” as the style’s popularity crested and started a fruitful musical friendship with Johnny Mathis on the duet “Too Much, Too Little, Too Late,” reinvigorating the crooner’s career with his first chart-topping single since 1957’s “Chances Are.”
The song’s success led to the hit 1978 album “That’s What Friends Are For” (Columbia) and another duet on “Without Us,” the theme for the 1980s sitcom “Family Ties.” She probably reached her widest audience with 1984’s number one hit “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” from the soundtrack for “Footloose.”
With her career ascendant, Williams and her Earth, Wind & Fire buddy Phillip Bailey decided to give thanks by bringing L.A.s creatively charged gospel music scene to the Sunset Strip with the landmark 1980 concert “Jesus at the Roxy.” Gospel had been a cornerstone of her sound from the beginning, but her commitment to her faith led to conflict with Columbia.
“From the very first album, every project had a gospel song, starting with ‘Somebody’s Watching You,’ which I wrote with Maurice White,” Williams says. “The first time I won a Grammy was a for a gospel song on a secular album. Gospel fans accepted me because I’d been doing it all along. That was not the opinion of my record label, though. They were very angry, and they didn’t like it at all. That was a hard time.”
Through hard times and good times, Niecy is one soul queen who’s never strayed far from her fans.
Contact Andrew Gilbert at jazzscribe@aol.com.
DENIECE WILLIAMS
When: 7:30 pm and 9:30 p.m. Dec. 22, 7 p.m. Dec. 23
Where: Yoshi’s, 510 Embarcadero West, Oakland
Tickets: $38-$74, 510-238-9200, www.yoshis.com
