Black Music Sunday is a weekly series highlighting all things Black music, with over 245 stories covering performers, genres, history, and more, each featuring its own vibrant soundtrack. I hope you’ll find some familiar tunes and perhaps an introduction to something new.
There comes a time in most folks’ lives when they are enraptured by a particular love song, or hearing a certain melody brings back memories of an old flame—and perhaps a little heartache as well.
When I think of soulful love ballads I immediately hear the unique voice of Grammy-winning songstress Anita Baker. If you have ever found love, lost love, or wished for love, Ms. Baker will take you right back to those emotions with her particular vocal magic. Today we celebrate her 67th birthday by giving her just a bit of the love that she has bestowed on us throughout her career, which has spanned more than four decades.
Baker’s beginnings were less than lovely, as Jenny Bleier and James M. Manheim detailed in her Musician Guide biography:
Baker was born on January 26, 1958 in Toledo, Ohio, and grew up in Detroit’s inner city. Her birth mother, a substance abuser who was only 16 when Anita was born, abandoned her when she was two years old, leaving her in the care of friend named Mary Lewis. Lewis died when Anita was 13, and an older sister in her adoptive family told her the truth about her past. Baker made the conscious decision to meet her birth mother for the first time.
Feelings of Abandonment
Much later, in an interview with Essence, Baker recalled how she tried to cope with this discovery: “That child believed her mother abandoned her,” she said (referring to herself), “because there was something bad about her. Something terrible that made her unlovable. And until Walter [Baker’s future husband], that is how I felt about me–that I was not good enough. Not good, period.” Baker’s new foster parents, beautician Lois Landry and her husband Walter, provided her with a stable environment that emphasized hard work and religion; she joined a church choir and identified with the deep voice of gospel singer Mahalia Jackson. She began to sing secular music with her friends as well, and she was performing in Detroit clubs by the time she was 16. Baker attended a community college briefly, but a strong drive toward musical performance asserted itself, and she dropped out of school to front a funk ensemble called Chapter 8 whose bass player had heard her perform in an East Side nightclub.
Chapter 8 toured widely and landed a contract with Los Angeles-based Ariola Records. They had a minor hit with “I Just Want to Be Your Girl” in 1980, but disbanded after being dropped from the label, which was itself in dire financial straits. Label executives offered the assessment that Baker lacked star quality.
Here’s that Chapter 8 recording, with Baker singing lead at age 22.
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You’ll probably find it just as stunning as I did that a record company executive had the audacity to diss her performance.
James M. Manheim and Tom Pendergast continue her story for AllAboutJazz:
In 1982 Baker was signed by an independent label called Beverly Glen. Her first solo album, ”The Songstress,” was released in 1983. The album attracted wide industry attention, yielded two R&B hit singles (“Angel” and the gospel-drenched “No More Tears,” which did indeed bring to mind the voice of Mahalia Jackson), and sold a respectable 300,000 copies. But Baker, still naïve in the ways of the music business, received no royalties from the album and parted ways acrimoniously with Beverly Glen, a much-needed follow-up album still unreleased.
Baker signed with Elektra and threw herself wholeheartedly into her next project, the album “Rapture,” released in 1986. Baker supervised every aspect of the record’s production. Filling the role of executive producer herself, Baker chose “Songstress” collaborator Michael Powell as producer, and the two painstakingly selected songs that fit Baker’s smooth, ultra-romantic, jazz- inflected vocal style. They succeeded brilliantly. The album yielded two massive hit singles in both R&B and pop tabulations, “Sweet Love” and “You Bring Me Joy.” The singer was rewarded with two Grammy awards in 1987, and by the end of 1988 “Rapture” had racked up sales of over five million units.
Give a listen to her first album, “The Songstress,“ followed by the second, “Rapture,” which skyrocketed her to fame.
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Part of what has drawn so many fans to Baker is her live performances. This is her rendition of “Sweet Love” on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” back in 1986.
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This 22-minute clip from the TV series “Cover Story” includes interviews with Baker, George Duke, Natalie Cole, and producer Michael Powell.
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Musicians and vocalists will find this 21-minute video from Milik Kashad, creator of the Black Music Archive, eye (and ear) -opening. He breaks down Anita’s “legato” singing technique.
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I’ve watched the 2010 Soul Train Awards tribute to her artistry, where she was serenaded with her own songs, multiple times. Aaron Foley wrote about it for Michigan Live:
Fellow Detroit native Kem shared the stage with Windsor native Tamia, Grand Rapids native El DeBarge (who also participated in a tribute to one-time Motowner Ron Isley), Chrisette Michele, Dionne Farris, Lalah Hathaway, Rachelle Ferrell, Goapele and Faith Evans (who is playing Motowner Florence Ballard
Tamia performed “Giving You the Best That I Got” from Baker’s third album of the same name, flashing her wedding ring from ex-Detroit Piston Grant Hill while singing the “I’ll bet everything on my wedding ring” lyric.
Evans was up next performing “No One in the World” from “Rapture,” followed by Kem and Ferrell duetting on “Been So Long,” also from that album. And just when you think Baker’s first album, “The Songstress,” was going to be ignored, Hathaway took the stage to perform “Angel.”
Goapele and Farris took the stage for “Same Ole Love” from “Rapture” (watch the Detroit-filmed video for “Same Ole Love”
[…]
And the audience wasn’t full yet — DeBarge took the stage after Baker gave her thanks to perform “Sweet Love.”
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Jazz fans will appreciate her performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival:
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While I was finishing this piece up, my husband requested that I post his favorite Baker ballad. Here it is:
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Join me in the comments below to post your favorite, and send birthday wishes to the lady of love song!
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