I've just been in a time machine which has taken me back 33 years to watch Anita Baker live in concert promoting her classic album 'Rapture'. It is many years since I have listened to the album properly in full and what a joy it was watching her perform all the songs from the album pitch perfectly. This is an official video released by Elektra Records in 1987 and is interspersed with clips of Anita being interviewed.
She had a difficult upbringing, being abandoned by her mother aged two and then brought up by foster parents who died when she was 12, thereafter being raised by her foster sister. At 16 she was singing in nightclubs in Detroit before joining Chapter 8 in 1975 who were later signed by Ariola, releasing their first album in 1979. Ariola was acquired by Arista, and as mentioned in a previous post, some 'genius' at Arista decided to drop Chapter 8 as they didn't think Baker had 'star quality'. She then proceeded to release 6 solo albums and a Christmas album (a very jazz infused production), four of which went multi-platinum (selling over 1m copies) and her last in 2004 went gold (500k copies), and was awarded 8 Grammy's from 18 nominations. Christmas album aside, only her highly regarded 1983 debut album 'The Songstress' on Beverly Glen failed to go at least gold.
Apart from a cover of Tyrese's 'Lately' in 2012, she hasn't produced any new material since 2005. 'Lately' was due to feature on a new album scheduled for release in 2013 titled 'Only Forever' but it was never released.
She announced a 'Farwell Tour' in 2018 when she reached 60 and in 2020 quashed rumours that she was making a comeback by announcing her retirement on Twitter. So we will have to make do with the existing catalogue. I wonder how many of today's neo soul artists we will still be listening to and appreciating in 35 years time?
1. Mystery 1:28
2. Caught Up In The Rapture 9:23
3. Same Ole Love 15:29
4. You Bring Me Joy 19:20
5. You've Changed 25:34
6. Watch Your Step 27:55
7. Sweet Love 34:55
8. Been So Long 41:38
9. No One In The World 48:35
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