Jessica Williams, a renowned dance music artist has been singing since she could talk.
One of ten children she was raised in a gospel singing home and church in Tyler, Texas. She was very fortunate to work with Motown songwriter-producer Hal Davis and soon found herself backing Motown stalwarts like Diana Ross on ‘Love Hangover’ and Thelma Houston on ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ along with numerous songs for Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and The Jackson Five.
She became a lead singer for dance producer Simon Soussan’s (who produced Pattie Brooks, Shalimar, etc.) group Arpeggio the first group from his Polydor-distributed label, Harem Records. With Arpeggio Jessica acquired some hits under her belt like ‘Love and Desire” and ‘Let The Music Play. She also had some solo recordings ‘Queen Of Fools’, ‘Limelight’, and ‘Love Hostage’ at Harem Records, which are dance classics.
With her studio and club tour success, Jessica, still continued her rewarding work as a background vocalist for The Jazz Crusaders (Ghetto blaster album), Stephanie Mills, Laine Kazan, and Helen Reddy giving her the chance to explore other musical styles. Her independent projects as a campy send-up of ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’ produced by Man To Man, brought her a great cult following in England and Mexico.
Producer Rick Gianatos, who produced for Scheme Payne and Jayne Edwards, knew very well Jessica’s gifted versatile talents and invited her to join in for some session work for his Motor City Reunion project. Jessica then joined Rick’s Altair Records label and they put their heads together and came up with a sparkling new version of ‘Keep The Fire Burning, an eighties powerhouse R&B tune written by Willie Hutch and originally recorded by Gwen McRae.
Jessica used her versatility by singing background and booking the background singers for acts appearing on ‘The Arsenic Hall Show’, in which she worked with her husband John B. Williams who was the Bassist and resident poet in the show’s band ‘The Posse’. In 1998, Jessica reunited with Helen Reddy on Helen Reddy’s CD ‘Center Stage, a collection of Broadway songs.
It was through her association with Helen Reddy that Jessica was asked to lend her vocal talents to a dance remake of Helens’ Grammy-winning ‘I Am Woman. Fine Line Features released ‘Trick,” starring Christian Campbell, J.P. Pitoc, and Tori Spelling. ‘I Am Woman’ appears in its entirety in the film, and is on the movie’s soundtrack distributed by Will Records. So, after all those years in the background, Jessica Williams has moved up front right where she belongs with Paradax Records. Jessica contacted Dwayne Taylor the founder of Paradax Records and a mutual music relationship was born. Jessica recorded her debut single ‘Faith, Friendship & Love’ on March 23rd, 2006 with Paradax Records. The track received a positive reaction within the dance music community. Many of Jessica’s fans were happy to see and hear her back where she should be with a new record label and an updated fresh new sound. The second single ‘Mingle With the Night’ was successfully promoted at the 2008 Winter Music Conference and continues to get into the hands of the “A-List” DJs. The remixes were done by some of the best talents on both sides of the U.S. i.e. Aaron Arce, Frankie Medina, Estranjeros, Roqsta, and Victor Simonelli.
