Let the music play on
How Maurice White Discovered Deniece Williams and convinced her to be a solo artiste
In 1975 Maurice White the founder of Earth Wind and Fire set up Kalimba Productions as a separate entity mainly for outside productions and also for different kinds of music he could not do in Earth Wind and Fire, also songwriters were encouraged to submit songs which could be Used by Earth Wind and Fire or on other projects.
One day while going through the tapes submitted, there was a cassette submitted by one of Stevie Wonder's background singers, the young lady happened to be Deniece Williams. On the cassette were some great songs but even the voice on those songs were amazing and it is what one would call a producer's delight .
Maurice White ( image c/o Pinterest)
Maurice now set up a meeting with Deniece who after much persuasion from Maurice that she had a good future in the music business other than being a background singer or a studio session singer, that Deniece now agreed to be signed to Kalimba productions .
The production on Deniece's debut album "This is Niecey" started in 1975 with Deniece writing or Co writing all but one song on the album,the album was produced by Charles Stepney and Maurice White and was released in 1976, it rose to No 3 and 33 on the R&B album and billboard 200 charts,this album was certified gold in the United States and did fairly well in the United Kingdom Charts
This is Niecey album sleeve c/o ( Virginian Pilot)
Deniece Williams has released many successful albums after her album “Let's hear it For the boy'' which reached No 1 on the hot 100 billboard charts. In recent years Deniece Williams has now gone gospel and has released some gospel albums which are also doing well on the gospel charts.
