LOS ANGELES, CA: Before her untimely death at the age of 54 on the day after Christmas 2010, Teena Marie, known as the Ivory Queen of Soul or simply Lady Tee as one of the only white artists ever signed to Motown Records, wrote, produced, arranged and sang on 13 albums that have sold 2.5 million copies in the soundscan era. Starting with her 1979, Rick James-produced debut, Wild and Peaceful, Teena Marie\u2019s many soul and R&B hits include \u201cSquare Biz,\u201d \u201cBehind the Groove,\u201d \u201cI Need Your Lovin\u2019,\u201d \u201cFire and Desire,\u201d \u201cLovergirl\u201d and \u201cOoo La La La,\u201d a song famously sampled by the Fugees. <\/p>\n
Teena Marie was working on her 14th and latest album for Universal Music Enterprises, Beautiful, at the time of her passing, the follow-up to 2009\u2019s Congo Square, which peaked at #4 on the R&B chart and went to #20 on the album chart, producing the Top 12 Urban AC hit, \u201cCan\u2019t Last a Day.\u201d Recorded at her own Pasadena home studio and finished except for final mixes, Beautiful was seen through to its conclusion by Teena\u2019s 20-year-old daughter Alia Rose, who sings with her Mom on two tracks, a cover of Curtis Mayfield\u2019s \u201cGive Me Your Love\u201d and \u201cRare Breed,\u201d which she co-wrote. (Alia co-wrote two more songs on the album, \u201cSweet Tooth\u201d and the title song.) The first single, \u201cLuv Letter,\u201d which has just gone to radio, is just that, an homage to Tee\u2019s Motown roots, with nods to Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cSigned, Sealed, Delivered I\u2019m Yours,\u201d and a dedication to Alia\u2019s father, who just happened to be a postman, like in the Marvelettes\u2019 song of the same name. The album comes out Jan. 15, 2013.<\/p>\n
The project, with its intimations of death, was a difficult one for Alia, with her mom seemingly prescient about her destiny on songs like \u201cRare Breed,\u201d where she sings, \u201cI could say I had the world here in my hands and not believe\/That angels sat beside me to protect my very dreams.\u201d She even plays a radio DJ \u201cbroadcasting to you from a heavenly station\u201d in \u201cThe Long Play.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a very dark and emotional time for me,\u201d explains Alia, who has just opened a Hollywood recording facility, Chateau Marie, as a memoriam, with partner, Odd Future\u2019s \u201cSyd tha Kyd\u201d Bennett, using much of the equipment from her mom\u2019s home studio. \u201cThe project was a bittersweet thing. I knew that only I could get it done, but I almost didn\u2019t want to finish because I knew it would be the last time I\u2019d get to work on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The album was co-produced by Teena\u2019s longtime musical director, bassist\/composer Doug Grigsby, whose credits include Michael Jackson, Patti LaBelle, Mariah Carey, Stephanie Mills, Teddy Pendergrass, Rick James and Luther Vandross, among others. It was recorded and mixed by Erik Zobler, whose studio credits include Jackson\u2019s Off the Wall as well as Miles Davis, Natalie Cole, Whitney Houston, Anita Baker and Gladys Knight, among many others. But the real impetus came from Teena\u2019s only daughter, who made sure this final product would do justice to her mom\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you listen to the lyrics, it\u2019s almost as if she was making that transition to the spiritual world as the record was being made, which is incredible,\u201d says Alia. \u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re going on this journey with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rick James\u2019 daughter Ty lends vocal support on \u201cRare Breed,\u201d while the title track is a lush ballad composed by Teena Marie when she was vacationing on the Turks and Caicos Islands with Alia, \u201cjust walking on the beach, having fun in the sand\u2026 thinking about how much of herself was in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now that Beautiful is about to be released, Alia is looking forward to thinking about her own future in music with her new recording studio.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get to help other people, and if something comes along for me, of course, I will take that opportunity,\u201d she says. \u201cMy mom always intended for her studio to be used by my friends, and now that\u2019s going to be what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of the day, though, Alia Rose is a young woman that lost her mother, who just happened to be a \u201crock star,\u201d as she describes her, at a too-young age.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom and I were very close,\u201d she says. \u201cWe talked. I\u2019m very much like my mother. She was not just my mom, she was my best friend and my sister. We fought like sisters, too. I know what real love is from my mom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beautiful is a mother\u2019s gift to her daughter, who returns the gesture the only way she knows how, by completing it. The end result is a true labor of love.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LOS ANGELES, CA: Before her untimely death at the age of 54 on the day after Christmas 2010, Teena Marie, known as the Ivory Queen of Soul or simply Lady Tee as one of the only white artists ever signed to Motown Records, wrote, produced, arranged and sang on 13 albums that have sold 2.5 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":295,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press_releases"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2318"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2318\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.livestagemusic.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}