Willie Hill

Willie Hill built his career as a seasoned performer backing R&B and soul groups on the road before founding both a recording studio and his own imprint in Durham, North Carolina. Born and raised in the city, he enrolled at North Carolina Central University and performed trumpet with its marching band. During his teenage years he picked up guitar and soon shifted to bass, securing his initial professional engagement on the instrument at fifteen.

At nineteen he joined the Communicators on bass and composed their 1974 hit “One Chance,” later anthologized on the 1999 collection Lost Soul Oldies, Vol. 5. Mid-decade he performed with the Modulations before switching, in 1977, to the bass chair for Doug Clark and the Hot Nuts. Eight years of intermittent work with Clark followed; Hill then departed and launched Inspire Productions, his Durham studio, in 1987. Engineering credits there include sessions for Lois Dawson, Shirley Caesar, the NCCU Jazz Ensemble, Mickey Mills and Steel, Shabba Ranks, Norman Conners, Stanley Baird, and Gerald Hinton, along with commercial projects for IBM, BET, and Duke University.

Hill had already established Joy Records in 1984; the label has served as the outlet for his own recordings, four of which have appeared since 1996, among them the 2000 release Some Love & Peace.