Anita Baker: Lady Of Soul

Multiple Grammy winner, Anita Baker is one of the foremost soul divas of the eighties.

Her smokey voice and smooth renditions have charmed audiences for over two decades, though the climb to the top was not an easy one for this R&B stalwart.

Anita began singing in the church choir when she was 12, joining a local band called Humanity in her teens. It was while performing with this band that she was noticed by bassist David Washington and invited to join his group Chapter 8. Anita was with the group for 3 years before they signed to Ariola and released their first album in 1979.

Ariola was shortly bought over by Arista who found Anita’s vocals weak and thus refused to renew the group’s contract. Disheartened, Anita returned to Detroit and worked a variety of jobs including short order cook, barmaid and law firm receptionist. In the meantime a new label Beverley Glenn was set up by Otis Smith in 1981. Smith had earlier been responsible for Chapter 8’s contract. He approached Anita to sign on the label and though she initially refused, eventually the offer proved difficult to resist.

Anita came back to the music industry with a bang, releasing The Songstress in 1983. A mixture of soul, jazz and gospel the album included the hits No More Tears and Angel. By the next year Anita had charted 4 hits. However differences with the label made her quit and sign to Electra in 1986.

At her new label, Anita was given compete creative control. She joined forces with her Chapter 8 band mate Michael J Powell to produce her first album with the label. Rapture went platinum in just 6 months and eventually sold over 6 million records world wide. It also won Anita her first two Grammys.

Anita’s second album Givin’ You The Best I Got was also with Powell. Released in 1987, it was acclaimed by critics and fans alike though there were reports that Anita herself was not completely satisfied with the end product. The album would subsequently win Anita three more Grammys.

Continuing to collaborate with Powell, Anita released Compositions in 1990. The album saw her experimenting with jazz and writing seven of its tracks. Another unique feature was that a substantial part of the album was recorded live. Compositions won Anita yet another Grammy.

Anita then decided to take a hiatus from recording. During this time she and her husband Walter Bridgeforth, Jr. became the proud parents of a baby boy. She returned to recording five months later and released Rhythm of Love in 1994.

Once more, Anita was closely involved in the production of this album and wrote five of its twelve tracks. Having ended her partnership with Powell earlier, she sought contributions from other producers like George Duke, Arif Mardin, Tommy Lipuma and Barry Eastmond for the album. Another Grammy resulted for I Apologise.

The period following this release was a difficult one for Anita. She lost her birth mother and father and also got embroiled in legal difficulties with her label, Electra.

Anita surfaced only in 1998 when she appeared on two tracks for pianist Cyrus Chestnut’s album. In 2000 she signed to Atlantic to begin work on an album that was never released. Two years later The Best of Anita Baker was released on Rhino, followed by 2004’s My Everything on Blue Note Records.

An exemplary artiste Anita Baker has released only 5 albums so far. But nevertheless she laid the foundations of the adult contemporary genre that later-day neo-soul artists would cater to so extensively.