Singer, actress, former Miss America Vanessa Williams comes to Blue Note Hawaii

Vanessa Williams has had chart-topping hit records, and she’s starred in films and on Broadway. Her involvement in the arts has involved a multitude of creative decisions, in front of and behind the spotlight.

Remember that scene in “Soul Food,” the 1997 comedy/drama about an African-American family in Chicago, when Williams’ character Teri Joseph catches her niece in bed with her husband? Williams made an important contribution to the dramatic impact of the scene after the cameras stopped rolling, in collaboration with writer/director George Tillman Jr.

“We were dubbing the movie, and he was talking about this one particular scene where Teri catches a glimpse of her husband fooling around,” Williams said last week, calling Hawaii from her office in New York. “He was trying to decide what type of music to use — and I said, ‘No, no, no, George. Leave it silent. It’s much more uncomfortable.’

“He took my advice, and when my character walks up the stairs you just hear the breath, and you feel uncomfortable, and that’s exactly what I think is effective.”

Hawaii will see more of Williams’ creative stagecraft and musicianship this weekend when she returns to Honolulu for three nights at Blue Note Hawaii.

She opens tonight, backed by a quintet that has been working with her since 1997.

“I’ve played the Blue Note in Japan — Tokyo and Osaka and Nagoya — but this is the first time I’ve played the Blue Note in Hawaii, so it should be very exciting,” Williams said.

”I’ll be doing my hits — ‘Save the Best for Last,’ ‘Colors of the Wind,’ ‘Sweetest Days,’ ‘Love Is,’ and some up-tempos like ‘Work to Do’ and ‘Comfort Zone.’ I’ll do some of the songs that I’ve done on Broadway and a couple of songs that really feature the band.”

WILLIAMS HAS had a lot of hits since her first album, “The Right Stuff,” was released in 1988.

From that album, her first two singles, “The Right Stuff” and “He’s Got the Look” did well on Billboard’s R&B singles chart. Her third, “Dreamin’,” peaked at No. 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart. The album was certified gold, with sales of more than 500,000 copies.

Williams’ next two albums, “The Comfort Zone” (1991) and “The Sweetest Days” (1994), were both certified platinum, with sales of more than 3 million and 1 million copies.

In 1992, Williams topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six weeks and had her first gold single with “Save the Best for Last.”

“‘Save the Best for Last’ changed my life,” Williams said. “I loved it when I heard the demo, I loved the tune, I couldn’t get it out of my head — but I didn’t realize what a massive hit it would be and how it would connect with so many people for so long.”

In her musical career, Williams said she has had to contend with those who didn’t expect her longevity.

When Williams scored a hit with “Dreaming,” her critics said, “It’s a one-hit wonder. Can she do it on the second album?” she related.

“Then when ‘Saved the Best for Last’ had sustaining power: ‘Is it really her singing?’

“Yes, it is, and it’s a song that stands the test of time. I’ll be singing it for the rest of my life.”

Williams had another life-changing experience in 1994 when she replaced Chita Rivera in the title role of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” on Broadway.

The New York Times hailed her performance as adding “a dimension to the production that has been missing until now: she is an irresistibly alluring temptress.”

“Chita Rivera had been one of my idols, and to jump into her shoes and take it to another level — we had an entirely different cast, so we had our own particular vibe and take on the show, and it really really worked — was an honor,” Williams said.

Williams and her leading men — Howard McGillin (Molina) and Brian Stokes Mitchell (Valentine) — earned sufficient admiration that a second album featuring the cast was recorded.

ANOTHER CAREER highlight came in 1997, when Williams starred opposite Puerto Rican singer/actor Chayanne in a two-dancers-meet-and-fall-in-love story, “Dance With Me.”

“I’m a trained dancer but I did not know ballroom, and I got a chance to train as a professional Latin ballroom dancer for three months before we shot,” she said. “It was fun to go back into the studio and learn a new technique, and then to actually do all my own dancing.”

She’s had many successes in the years since 1983, when she became the first African-American woman to be crowned Miss America — and was then stripped of her title.

Two months before the end of her reign in 1984, Williams was forced to give up her designation when Penthouse magazine announced it would publish nude photos of her. Williams had posed for the photos two years previously, while still in college and working as an assistant to a local photographer.

Over the years, however, and as Williams’ star continued to rise, the organization rethought that action.

In 2015, the Miss America organization invited Williams to serve as head judge for Miss America 2016.

Williams sang “Oh How the Years Go By,” and then received a public apology from the organization.

She had long since moved on, recording and performing.

Her latest film role has a tenuous Hawaii connection — she voiced the character of the fire goddess in the 2018 animated feature “The Legend of Hallowaiian,” (available on DVD and streaming services).

The story follows the adventures of three island teens — Leilani, Kai and Eddie — whose curiosity in opening a mysterious trunk releases what the film’s publicists call “an ancient evil being” named Pineapplehead who rampages through Hilo. The teens must appeal to the fire goddess to learn what they must do to save Hawaii.

“It was fun,” Williams said. “I love doing animation and voices. I’ve got four kids that are all kinda grown now, but I would do (animated features) to impress them. (This one) was one day of recording, and then showing up for the premiere.”

Williams said she was thinking about her children in 2011 when she appeared on NBC’s genealogy documentary series “Who Do You Think You Are?” (now on TLC) and researched the ancestors of her father, Milton Augustine Williams Jr.

She discovered that one great-great-grandfather had been born free in Oyster Bay, N.Y., and served in the Civil War with the Colored Troops; another was born a slave but was highly educated and was elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1885.

“We had two extraordinary stories,” she said. “I wish I could have dragged my kids along so they could just experience it, hear all the data and the information, hold the tintype that I had the chance to hold in D.C., and go to the war memorial in Nashville.”

Since doing the show Williams has had her DNA tested. The most recent results trace her ancestry to the British Isles, southern Europe, Portugal, and the African nations of Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal and Togo.

“They keep refining my data,” she says. “It’s all fascinating.”