Anita Baker

◎出色、优质与高雅的化身，荣获八座葛莱美奖节奏蓝调 / 爵士女伶
 
节奏蓝调女歌手安妮塔．贝克在八○年代的出现犹如一股暖洋洋的热带微风徐徐扫过流行乐坛。她的歌声平实不禁令人想起当代多位爵士女伶Nancy Wilson、Carmen McCrae、Sarah Vaughan甚至爵士第一夫人埃拉．费兹杰罗。外型娇小留着短发有双大眼睛的安妮塔怎么看也不像拥有饱满的歌喉，当然更不像高昂的Aretha Franklin或Patti LaBelle，也因此安妮塔的出现树立其独特的风格。
 
1957年出生于美国俄亥俄州，成长于底特律的安妮塔．贝克并非一夕成名，七○年代晚期她曾参加一个团体叫Chapter 8不过并不成功，直到1983年她才被说服以个人姿态再闯歌坛，首张专辑「The Songstress」开宗明义表明安妮塔是一实力派女唱将，其中首支单曲&No More Tears&和&Angel&都受到乐迷注意，这两首歌自然也收录在「Sweet Love: The Very Best Of」精选里。
 
安妮塔真正成名是在1986年的第二张专辑「Rapture」发行之后，其中的&Sweet Love&得到Billboard单曲第8名，更多的乐迷喜欢上安妮塔歌曲那种舒缓的曲调与慵懒的唱法，她自己也提过：「我希望带给人们的音乐是那种属于都会型的；想象你一下班回到家脱掉高跟鞋，瘫在沙发上时最想听的那种音乐就是了」。
 
1988年第三张专辑「Giving You The Best That I Got」问市，更将安妮塔的音乐事业推向巅峰，不仅专辑拿下Billboard冠军，同名单曲和&Just Because&也双双成为节奏蓝调榜冠军。
 
1990年的第四张专辑「Compositions」显示安妮塔在创作上的才华，多首歌都出自自己手笔，包括单曲&Talk To Me&。相隔四年，最后一张在Elektra唱片旗下的专辑「Rhythm Of Love」发行之后，渴望回归家庭的安妮塔告别了歌坛。
 
by Steve Huey
 
With her classy, refined brand of romantic soul, Anita Baker was one of the definitive quiet storm singers of the 80s. Gifted with a strong, supple alto, Baker was influenced not only by R&B, but jazz, gospel, and traditional pop, which gave her music a distinctly adult sophistication. Smooth and mellow, but hardly lifeless, it made her one of the most popular romantic singers of her time.
 
Baker was born January 26, 1958, in Toledo, OH, and raised in nearby Detroit, where she grew up listening to female jazz singers like Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson, and Ella Fitzgerald. At age 12, she began singing a gospel choir, and by age 16 she was performing with several local bands. In 1975, she successfully auditioned for Chapter 8, one of Detroits most popular acts at the time; the group eventually signed with Ariola and released an album in 1979, but were immediately dropped when the label was acquired by Arista (which didnt care for Bakers vocals). Chastened, Baker worked low-paying jobs in Detroit and eventually found steady work as a receptionist at a law firm. In 1982, Otis Smith — an executive whod worked with Chapter 8 — contacted Baker about recording for his new label Beverly Glen. Happy with her employment benefits and skittish over the experience with Arista, Baker was reluctant at first, but eventually flew out to the West Coast to record her debut album, The Songstress, in 1983. Though it didnt gain quite enough exposure to become a hit, it did help Baker build a strong fan base through word-of-mouth and she was signed by Elektra in 1985.
 
Working with producer Michael J. Powell (an old Chapter 8 cohort), Baker released her major-label debut Rapture in 1986. It was a platinum, Grammy winning smash, appealing to both urban and adult contemporary listeners and producing two all-time quiet storm classics in Caught Up in the Rapture and Sweet Love. Baker toured the world in 1987 and her guest appearance on the Winans track Aint Got No Need to Worry won a Grammy. Her equally stylish follow-up album, Giving You the Best That I Got, appeared in 1988, spawning more staples in the title track and Just Because. Giving You the Best That I Got also won Baker two more Grammys, for Best Female R&B Vocal and Best R&B Song. For her third Elektra album, Baker decided to handle a greater share of the songwriting, hence the title Compositions, which was released in 1990 and featured even stronger jazz inflections than Bakers previous work (not to mention all live instruments).
 
Following Compositions, Baker took a break from recording and touring; after having her first son in 1993, she returned to the studio to craft Rhythm of Love, which was released in 1994. In the years that followed, Baker was mostly silent, despite her fans clamoring for a jazz album; instead, she raised her family and became embroiled in contract disputes with Elektra, which eventually led her to move to Atlantic. She began working on a new album in 2000, but had to start over from scratch due to defective recording equipment that made the original tracks unsalvageable. In 2004 it was announced that she had signed with Blue Note and still working on her new album. In the meantime, the Atlantic imprint Rhino released Night of Rapture: Live, a 1987 concert originally available on video. Baker finally returned to the studio in 2003 and issued My Everything, her first album in 10 years. Two years later she released her first holiday album, Christmas Fantasy.