Earlier this week shocking news begininng popping out of internet outlets like a bad rash: Teena Marie, known to her fans as Lady T, had died at the age of 54....it was shocking because she was way too young to die, and as far most people knew had not been experiencing any health problems (though news reports revealed that she had suffered a Grand Mal seizure around a month ago). The shock and impact of the news also had a lot to do the depth of meaning that Teena Marie held for millions of people. If the meaning of one's life is measured by the impact of one's death, then Teena Marie's life and music meant one hell of a lot. She was one of those artists who made great music, yes, but also had life-changing impact on those who heard her; she touched people's hearts and souls deeply. I was one of those people.
As with so much life-changing music, I remember the exact moment I first heard Teena Marie's music. It was in 1979 in my apartment in Germantown. A woman who was living me had just bought a new single--she bought the latest hot R& B/ disco singles each week. The record was "I'm Just A Sucker For Your Love" with the flipside "Deja Vu" by Teena Marie, a new artist neither of us had heard of before. Though "I'm Just A Sucker For Your Love", a catchy piece of dance funk, was the hit, my friend played the other side for me first, saying "you have to check this out." "Deja Vu" immediately transfixed me. It was essentially a two chord vamp that ebbs and flows in waves that gradually build as Teena sings of mystical experiences, including the concept of reincarnation--hardly a typical lyric direction for an R & B ballad. The overall effect was hypnotic and transporting...but what really captured me was Teena's voice and vocal delivery. She threw herself into the song without any reservation or restriction--and she had the voice and range to soar. Cliche adjectives such as "passion" or "soul" don't really do justice to the totally of Teena Marie's vocal expression. She made you experience what she was experiencing emotionally.
That single--and the album it was taken from, WILD AND PEACEFUL--was on Motown Records. Teena's photo wasn't on the cover and at some point the buzz was that this great new R & B single on Motown was white. Much has been made by the media about this fact and it was sad to me that most of the recent media accounts of her passing have keyed in on this, as if it was the most important thing about her--the Queen of Ivory Soul etc, which diminishes who she was as an artist and a person. She was first and foremost simply a great singer and it so happened that her main medium of expression was rooted in soul/ R & B. For the first few years of her career, her audiences were overwhelmingly African-American. And as I remember it, her race simply was not an issue. Yes, people remarked on the fact of her color once it became known but that was it. Black audiences accepted her because her music was authentic. She's wasn't simply doing a lesser or even competitive version of what Black artists had done or were doing. She created her own style rooted in gospel, r & b, jazz and soul and it was emotionally true.
"Wild & Peaceful" was followed by a string of hit singles and three more magnificent albums for Motown in the space of three years that amplified and embellished the outpouring of passion and creativity and musicianship of her debut. She sang ballads, funk, quasi disco, jazzy fantasias and more. Her 1980 duet with Rick James (who had produced WILD AND PEACEFUL and was a mentor as well as, later, her lover) on "Fire And Desire" from his STREETS SONGS album is one of the most spectacular love ballad duets of all time--though, incredibly, it wasn't released as a single at the time. It showed off Teena's spectacular range, as well as highlighted another apsect of Rick James' artistry). In 198l, her huge dance/funk hit "Square Biz" featured Teena rapping in one portion, which was notable because it was a new thing for female artists to rap (though Debbie Harry had done it a few months earlier --but Teena's rapping was culturally more authentic), another case of Teena being on the cutting edge and tuned in to what was happening in black music.
A dispute with Motown over their failure to release new material by her led to a lawsuit and Teena ended up on Epic Records in 1983 where, after some moderate successes, she exploded in 1984 with "Lovergirl." Freed from the Motown system, she was very much in control of her artistry, writing, producing, arranging, leading the band and playing electric guitar in live performances, something which added another dimension to her persona and also opening up her image to rock/pop audiences. Her music took on more of a pop sheen but the essence was always the same, though "Emerald City", a "concept" album moved pretty far into rock territory. Lyrically she was free to explore her metaphysical side. I had the opportunity to interview her in 1984 just as "Lovergirl" was hitting, and I was impressed by her down-to-earth style and also the depth of her musical substance. She was happy that a writer was asking her questions about her musicianship and what went into the nuts and bolts of creating musically.
With Epic, Teena achieved huge "crossover" success in that her music was heard on pop radio and her fanbase expanded to include a much larger proportion of white fans. But it was a double-edged sword because when her 1990 release "Ivory Soul" didn't have crossover hits, only R & B hits, the diminished sales led Epic to drop her. In 1994 she released "Passion Play", an adventurous album on her own label but didn't have much success with it. For next few years she concentrated on raising her daughter but also began work on a new album, tentatively titled BLACK RAIN But major labels weren't interested; she was 40 years old, which sadly, is considered "over-the-hill" in the music industry--especially for female artists, especially if you haven't had any big hits for ten years. In 2000, I was approached by someone who asked if my company would be interested in releasing a new Teena Marie album, as we were getting into the adult R & B arena and were having some success on adult black radio. He gave me a cd-r of the unreleased BLACK RAIN album and I immediately thought it was her best work since the "Lovergirl" period. The thought of working with Teena was tremendously excited but we were very mindful of what it would take to properly re-launch her and at that point did not feel we could do the job necessary (a few years later we would have been more than ready!). But I was happy--though somewhat bemused-- to see Teena land a deal with Cash Money Records, a success rap label. At first glance, it didn't seem like a great fit, but Cash Money was starting and adult R & B division and they did a good job of promoting LA DONA, Teena's first new album release in a decade. Very few veteran artist can match their earlier success when they release a "comeback" project but miraculously, LA DONA did. Containing some of the material I had heard on BLACK RAIN, it was musically strong and went gold, spawning a couple of hit R & B singles. Teena was singing as powerfully as ever and she picked up a new generation of fans to give with the first and second waves of fans who had stuck with her over the years. A follow-up album a couple years later wasn't quite as successful, but still solid....and best of all Teena was performing in concert quite frequently. I caught her at BB King's in New York City in 2008. When she first came out, for some reason she came around to the front of the stage and I didn't immediately recognize her. She was dressed down, with no flash and little make-up. Then she got on stage and delivered a two hour shows that gave us everything she had. She sang her hits, she sang new songs. She played guitar, she danced, she rapped and led the band. It was an electrifying performance to a packed house.
Last year she put out an ambitious, wide-ranging album entitled CONGO SQUARE, the title of which referred to the historic gathering place of slaves on Sundays in New Orleans, the one day they were allowed to come together to do the African-rooted drumming and dancing of their heritage. Many trace the roots of jazz to these gatherings.
The last time I saw Teena was at the 2008 Rhythm And Blues Foundation Pioneer Awards, where she was honored with an Award, as was Chaka Khan and other legends. Teena was moved to tears by the award and then she performed a spine-tingling version of "Deja Vu" that brought the audience to its feet. Lady T was as magnificent as ever and that performance brought me full circle back that moment when I had heard her music for the very first time nearly thirty years before. She made you believe the reality of her experiences when she sang. A huge number of her longtime fans are feeling a "hole in their soul" right about now. I am one of those fans.
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