I'm sitting here at my keyboard playing the chord progression to Square Biz over and over again, with a glass of single malt on one side, and a box of tissues at the other. Clearly, whatever superpower that provides the unknown wanted Teena Marie to return to the sky today. I don't know if there are words to describe the utter emptiness inside of me right now.
I can remember vividly the first time I heard Teena, and thought "this chick is a complete badass." Even long before I knew of her complete CV, I knew that Teena Marie was a soulful diva, a singer of the highest order, and someone whose star I wanted to follow. She had a resume that inspired me utterly, as a writer, a player, and a singer. That she was also a lil ole white girl, who was adored by a largely African American audience, intrigued and inspired me as well. Artists like Teena live by the credo long ago spoken by Charles Mingus, "soul knows no color. The great are colorless."
Teena Marie was a funkstress, a jazz singer, a poet and someone who was an all ecompassing presence of aspirations and fearlessness. Teena, up to the end, was always Teena, uncompromising and funky. There isn't a singer alive today, who sings R+B music that hasn't been touched by her influence whether they know it or not.
Sadly, on Twitter today it became painfully obvious how few people knew who Teena was. An entire generation of younguns, completely missed out on Lady T. Normally I get really furious when I see how things are so lazily handled these days, and how uneducated so many young people are with the history and pathology of the music they enjoy today, but today it just made me all the sadder.
All I can say, is that without Teena Marie, there would be no Amy D. Teena was a true influence on what I do as an artist today and her removal from planet Earth, is going to be felt by me for a long time. If I had a dime for every time I sang Square Biz, or Lovergirl, or Behind the Groove with some pick up funk band, I'd be a rich bitch by now. Funny, those songs, no matter how many times I sang them, NEVER GOT OLD FOR ME. I never tired once of singing those songs, proof that her work was enduring and the truest highest definition of pure art. Teena wrote timeless classics that will endure forever, delivered by a voice that is one in a million. What other bad bitch could stand toe to toe with RICK JAMES????
54 years is not enough time on the planet. We'll always have her music thank heavens, but the world just lost one of the funkiest, sexiest most sensational artists of all time.
R.I.P.
