December 05. 2013 11:22AM
Though her dreams of touring with the King of Pop were dashed when Michael Jackson died in 2009, backup singer Judith Hill, who had been slated to sing a duet with the musical icon, found that her own musical journey was far from over.
The Los Angeles native, who will perform at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry on Tuesday, Dec. 10, grew up in a musical household. Her parents, who operate Master’s Crib Recording Studio, are Robert “Pee Wee” Hill, a pioneering funk bassist known for his work with such artists as Sly Stone, Jimmy Smith and Bob Dylan, and Michiko Hill, a keyboardist whose credits include Rufus with Chaka Khan, Wayne Shorter and Billy Preston.
Though versed in funk, jazz and soul, she pursued a degree in music composition at California’s Biola University, where she wrote her first symphony as well as pieces for piano, vocal groups, chamber ensembles and string quartets. After graduation, she spent a year in Paris, singing background vocals for French singer-songwriter Michel Pol.
But a career-making moment arrived when the singer and songwriter was chosen, at age 24, to sing backup for Michael Jackson for his planned tour. The stint included a duet with the musical icon on “I Just Can’t Stop Loving You.”
Though Jackson’s death signaled the untimely end of the tour, rehearsal scenes including that memorable duet were featured in documentary film “This Is It.”
“He was just so magical, such a sweetheart,” she said in a recent interview. “Just watching him work the stage and create an amazing production was the best schooling.”
In a written statement, she described Jackson as “very polite, very shy, but so iconic in everything he did. Everything you’d imagine him to be like. He was a perfectionist; he knew exactly what he wanted. I learned so much just observing him rehearse us, giving notes to the lighting person or the director. It was so incredible to see this iconic King of Pop putting a show together.”
Hill wound up singing Jackson’s “Heal the World” at Jackson’s public memorial.
“It was such an emotional moment in my life,” Hill recalled. “Because just two weeks earlier I was on stage rehearsing (with him). It was just so surreal.”
Next, she set about broadening not only her musical horizons, but expanding her artistic endeavors, blending her lifelong passion for fashion and theater into a live act.
“I’m really passionate about bringing cultures together,” Hill said in her bio. “I love music from Asian and Arabic and African cultures, and it’s exciting to also play with those things visually. Being biracial, those things represent me as well as the world.”
She spent much of 2011 traveling the world in partnership with Avon Cosmetics, serving as spokesperson and star of their worldwide Avon Believe World Tour. The trek took Hill to such faraway places as Istanbul, Shanghai, New Delhi, Warsaw, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Johannesburg.
READ MORE: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20131205/NEWHAMPSHIRE01/131209620
Source: unionleader / MJ-Upbeat.com
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