You may not recognize her name, but you have probably heard her voice hundreds of times. She has been the voice for so many TV and radio jingles for Coke, Pepsi, Folgers, McDonald’s, Cadillac, United Airlines, American Express and many others. Paulette McWilliams’ highly anticipated CD, Telling Stories, is a beautiful beginning to everything she’s hoped for.The Chicago native’s earliest memories of singing are with her mother. “Unlike a lot of singers that I know, I didn’t grow up in the church. I went to Catholic school and grew up singing jazz and blues with my mom,” she says.
The former original lead singer for Ask Rufus, before it was Rufus featuring Chaka Khan, McWilliams fondly reminisces about forming and performing with this talented group of musicians. “… when I heard [Chaka Khan] sing, I felt it was my duty for everybody to know her and hear her sing. The group knew her as my friend but didn’t know she was a singer, and when I was ready to leave after returning from a three-month trip through Europe and the South of France, I was done. I went to Chaka first and told her I was thinking about leaving and that I would love for her to take my place and I suggested her to the guys because I thought she would be a perfect fit for the group. With reluctance at the time they agreed only if I stayed to perform with her on stage for two more weeks. She was on her path. I was still finding mine.”
It was not too long after the split that she was introduced to Quincy Jones. Quincy made her his lead singer for the Body Heat tour and introduced her on the Mellow Madness album, for which she co-wrote the title song. Life’s musical journey has come full circle for McWilliams. After years of touring and recording with artists like Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, Bette Midler, Johnny Mathis, and countless others, McWilliams is finally taking control of her destiny. Set for a September 2011 release, her latest project, a collaborative effort with longtime colleague, Tom Scott, is a labor of love that features a duet with the incomparable sultry voice of Will Downing performing a cover of the Kool and the Gang hit “Too Hot.”
“I believe that everything I’ve done in my life has brought me here. For the first time in my life I feel like I am on a path to really embracing that jazz singer that I am,” she says. –tony binns
