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Ten years ago, at the pinnacle of her career, multiple Grammy Award-winning R&B singer, Anita Baker, gave it up to raise her two sons and care for sick relatives.
My reasons for listening to Baker were purely self-centered at first. I acquired a taste for her jazzy style of singing only after many people, including members of my own family, said I resembled her. (No vocal resemblance!)
Baker has returned to performing, but on a very limited schedule. She works a couple of days a week and will be taking her kids on tour with her. I suppose it isn’t much of a sacrifice for a wealthy entertainer to work this way.
Still, I’m always fascinated by women who give up careers, rewarding or not, to focus on others, namely their own children. My mother raised the four of us (2 sisters, 1 brother) herself, and my warmest childhood memories were of having her around when I left for school and when I returned home. If I had to leave school early, I could call home and ask her to pick me up, and I wouldn’t have to wait until she could leave work. Today she’d be called a “stay at home mother.”
I digress again. I was researching a different subject when I found this article about Baker’s comeback:
The queen of eighties romantic R&B had been walking on emotional eggshells all day before the show. She didn’t rehearse much with her band. She had left that to her musical partner Barry Eastmond, whom she had worked with on her 1994 single I Apologize.It wasn’t just her mother’s death that was weighing on her as she took the stage. Baker had quit the limelight at the height of her career in 1994 and went into a period of semi-retirement in order to raise her sons and take care of her ailing parents. After her mother died, the urge to perform came rushing back. She needed a release.
My favorite song is “No One in the World.” Do you know the tune? Sing a few bars with me:
I look back on all those good times
we once shared and I must have been blind
just to think I find someone new
one who loved me better than you
well it may come as a surprise
loneliness has opened my eyes
I’ve tried every road I could find
still I can’t get you out of my mind‘Cause there’s no one in the world to hold me
no one in the world can to move me
no one in the world can love me like you do baby
every time I’m with someone
loving you I just want to run
I wanna run back to your arms again
there’s no one in the world (no one in the world)
loves me like you do
I love that song. More Anita Baker news: Washington Post — “Anita Baker, Quietly Storming Back”, FOXNews.com — “Anita Baker Back After 10-Year Hiatus”, Billboard.com — “Anita Baker Inks With Blue Note”, Toronto Star — “Anita Baker gets reacquainted with spotlight: Took 10 years off to care for her family.”
Addendum: A commenter mentions Sade, one of my other favorite jazzy singers. This is her official site, which may be too high-resolution (or whatever the term is) for some computers.
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I for one am extremly grateful for her return. I commend her reasons for the semi-retirement, but I missed her great voice. “No one in the World” is one of my favorites also. Now if Sade would only release a new album I would be in heaven.
Sade, Oh yes! Her latest was a few years ago. I don’t know how well the album did, but I was so glad she came out with it. I like a few songs on it. Back in my late-teen/early-twenties years, she ruled my world.
Please don’t get me started talking about Helen Adu. You don’t want that. Sade would have given Hemingway second thoughts about Josephine Baker.
Anita has the voice. It’s warm and calming, but kinda viscuous at the same time. Like syrup or honey, I guess.
My favorite song by her is easily Sweet Love, although “No One In The World” is nice too.
Mighty bless.
Avery,
I’ll take it a step further… not honey, but meade. Sweet, smooth and with an intoxicating kick.
Thanks Ave, now i’ll be hearing that song in my head ALL DAY … “For my life I will love you baby …”
I like Sweet Love, but her stuff is all good. Ditto for Sade.
My wife is also a stay-at-home mom, it’s hard on our budget, but worth every bit of quality time for the kids. We just do without some of the things most people take for granted, for instance, new cars and keeping up with the Joneses. I don’t even have a credit card and haven’t for 10 years after I decided that I’d rather not be in debt ever again. My wife had one from before we met, which we decided she should keep as an emergency.
Anita’s a mature woman, who sings like a woman about a woman’s love. Her voice is a core of caramel wrapped in a rich chocolate mousse. Any man who can listen to her sing and not vibrate like a tuning fork: that man is gay.
…a core of caramel wrapped in a rich chocolate mousse…
Nice image.
Saw her live at the Sunrise Musical Center in Ft. Lauderdale when her first album dropped. She was not a very pleasant person then. A true evil diva. Stopped the performance 3 times to complain about her on stage monitors. “Cussed” everybody out. Then only let some Miami Dolphins who were in the audience backstage even though other fans had legitimate backstage passes to meet her.
I enjoy her music, but ever since then have been kind of cool on her personally. The number of songs she has on her CDs referring to the term “sorry” also tells me a lot about her. Seems like she has an anger management issue and has to apologize a lot.
I would also like to her to work on her vocal clarity. Style is one thing, but I would like to understand what the heck she is saying.
Sorry for beating up on ya girl, but I suppose first impressions last.
Sorry, Raymond, but you’re really trashing her here. I can see you don’t like her, but this isn’t an Anita Baker-bashing post. – Admin
I am so grateful that Anita has decided to come out with a much awaited album.
If the thing you say is true, it’s upsetting, but this is not an Anita Baker-bashing post. Please limit comments to what you like about her. If nothing, then post nothing. Please e-mail me your concerns. – Admin
NO ANITA BAKER-BASHING IN THE POST. IF HAVE NOTHING NICE TO SAY, THEN SAY NOTHING.
All such posts will be deleted. If you have something off-topic to say about it, please e-mail me.
OK. I’m sowwy LB.
John I understand what you are saying. I am pro lifer myself. I feel that entertainers should stick to their craft and leave politics up to the politicians. But in this day age there is a thin line between the two. I was a little disturbed to hear about Sheryl Crow joining forces with MoveOn to do a concert. My daughter and I use to sing “Soak up the Sun” together before I went to Iraq…
These artists must realize that I will defend their right to my death so they can voice their dissent. It would be nice if we can do a USO tour for the troops.
This is great news! I like “Giving You The Best That I’ve Got.” I think she is awesome – and she and Regina Belle remind me an awful lot of each other.
Speaking of, Regina Belle’s latest album is – well – fantastic. The title track (”Lazy Afternoon”) makes you long to whip up a margarita, tie a hammock in between two trees in your back yard and have a chillin’ day in the afternoon sun, enjoying the soft breezes
Regina Belle! Now THAT sistuh can sang! Love her. I will be purchasing Anita too. Someone lifted all but one of her other CDs I owned.
I have always loved Anita Baker – there’s something so soothing, so wonderful about her voice – I had no idea what was up with her, and why she had “disappeared” – so thank you, La Shawn for letting me know – and also letting me know she is back! I’m very glad. A class act, that dame.
That could be you in the picture, LaShawn. It looks like you.
On SAHMs…from one: our kids make it easy to stay home. I say it’s much more fun than work! I was never one for the career track though.
Oh, LaShawn, you have no idea how happy we Michiganders are to have Anita back, too! Singing, that is. She has, of course, been around town the entire time. But she is a sparkling gift to jazz, and I was SO excited when her new album came out. SHE is an example of the true talent that has come out of Detroit for ages. (Well…I am a cheerleader for Detroit…)
Hip-Hop killed soul!!! There is absolutley NO redeeming value to Hip-Hop music or the culture that it spawned. A 100 hip-hoppers couldn’t raise up enough talent to touch the bottom of Anita’s shoes!
Steven, I hafta strongly disagree with you on the idea that hip-hop has no soul. Maybe not the hip-hop you know about, but you can’t judge an entire genre on one sub-genre, even if it’s the most prevalent. Put it like this: Anita and Aretha are both R & B singers, and are both soulful. They sound nothing alike. There’s no judgement I could make about Anita’s singing that would suffice for Aretha, even though I buy them in the same section at the record store.
Having said that, if you don’t like hip-hop, you don’t like it. And that’s fine. My favorite Parker on the saxophone is Maceo. I don’t like that dissonant jazz. But it would be entirely inaccurate of me to try to come off like all jazz is one way because of Bird or Trane.
But this is La Shawn’s spot. I’ll take this up some more down the block at Stereo. Hope to see you there.
I’m so sick of the blonde hair weave wearing (Beyonce, Ashanti, Ciara) booty shaking, talentless, overexposed (in every possible way) hip-hop “divas” of today.
).
I’ll take Anita Baker, Sade and Regina Belle over these new pop tarts any day (and I’m 24!
AMEN Jasmin and Steven Kelso!
On point for sure. If only hip-hop would die, the economic and social conditions of black american and the country as a whole would increase a thousand fold.
Unfortunately, it’s not going away any time soon.
That’s because I deleted the offensive post, just as I did this one. – Admin
Kudos for anita baker she put family before cereer and now is back now if only those spineless jellyfish in hollywood would put patriotism ahaead of their own poitical ideas and their socialist agenda
loved this. i’m unfortunately not familiar with her music, but plan to be more so by the end of this week! =)
I am glad to see Anita back. I’m glad that she can take her children along on tour and work on a limited schedule. I pray that her wonderful gift will always make room for live and love too. Enjoyed the post. I’ll be back.
I like that thing about Regina Belle.
Sure, she is one of the most unique vocalists in the world. I like her consistency, her fantastic , soulful phrasing which put her much above the pack. I like her because she is so simple and understated; and most of all she always takes risks like on her latest release “Lazy Afternoon”. This album can be a little difficult at the first listen,but then, after a while, her music grows on you and haunts you.
She is the perfect match for Anita(I have to tell that I was not crazy about ‘My Everything’, too tight and a bland concept for her project), still I like it.
Yes, Anita, Regina and Sade…I love them with all my art…theirs is true artistry.
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