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Anita Baker - Soul’s One And Only Songstress
By Carla Robinson
Not that I dare
place myself in such elite company, but Anita Baker and I have something in common. We
were both born in Toledo, Ohio. That may not sound like much, but I guess you had to be
there to understand the impact this diva of Soul had on our little corner of the world. Us
Toledoans couldn’t care less that she grew up in Detroit; we claimed her regardless.
We knew she was magic and we wanted a little of that to rub off on us. Toledo may be in
the Midwest, but that doesn’t qualify us as hicks, you understand. So way before
Anita released Rapture, we were grooving to The Songstress (“Angel” was our
jam), and that was in 1983.
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Some say that record disappeared almost as
soon as it was released, but it wasn’t due to lack of support from us, you dig? We
dug because we were already feeling Anita from her days with Detroit’s Chapter 8. The
Electrifyin’ Mojo, then Detroit’s hottest urban DJ (if you don’t know, you
better ask somebody!), kicked “I Just Want To Be Your Girl” night and day and
when Anita made that plea, we came to understand the meaning of desire. Yep, we were there
from the start. Everybody else was stunned by Rapture. We loved it, but we already knew
what the girl could do.
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The real marvel is that she was only 28 in
1986 when she released Rapture (so young, yet so wise). But she’d had plenty of
preparation for it. She sung in church at the age of 12 and joined a high school band at
16. When she was 17, Chapter 8 tapped her. Their first and only record came out in 1979,
featuring “Ready for Your Love” and “I Just Wanna Be Your Girl,” both
of which made the R&B charts. When the group failed to gain a contract for another
album, Anita went to work as a receptionist at a Detroit law firm. Satisfied with her paid
vacations and health insurance and stung by the shady dealings of the music industry, she
almost passed up the opportunity to record The Songstress.
When she got ready for her next album, she ran into trouble with her label, Beverly Glenn.
She managed to sign with Elektra, where she not only recorded, but also executive produced
every one of her albums since Rapture. She also brought in Michael J. Powell, who’d
been a member of Chapter 8, to work with her as a producer. In 1998, she made an
appearance on Jazz pianist Cyrus Chestnut’s self-titled CD, performing “My
Favorite Things” and “Summertime.” Now on Atlantic, she’s set to offer
a new release this year although no one seems to know exactly when. George Duke will
produce it. It’s been quite a journey and along the way, she’s picked up 8
Grammys, 8 Soul Train Awards, 5 American Music Awards and 4 NAACP Image Awards.
Not bad, for a girl from Toledo.
M
February 2001 |
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