 Onstage, Teena Marie is raw energy personified. She prances from one side of the stage to the other, sometimes dancing, sometimes playing keyboards, guitar, or percussion, but always using her powerful voice to move her audience to greater heights.
That's the Teena Marie I had expected to meet, but I was in for a surprise. The larger-than-life onstage Teena is a rather soft-spoken and decidedly shy young woman off stage. Nevertheless, she's a canded and willing interview subject, though a bit difficult to warm up to.
When I met the petite singer for our interview, whe had a bodyguard -- at least that's what I assumed he ws -- sitting silently, arms folded, nearby. He looked like a big chocolate Buddha on the alert for bad karma. At first, his Mr. T-type presence intimidated me, but once Teena and I began talking, I forgot about him. He faded into the background just like a hulking piece of office furniture.
"I owe a lot to black people and black music," said Teena. "Black audiences have always supported me and, although I've had some crossover success with "Square Biz," "I Need Your Lovin'," and now "Lovergirl," the audience that appreciated me first was black, and that means the most to me."
Now recording for Epic after breaking away from Motown following a series of legal hassles, Teena talked about Motown's 1979 decision not to put her picture on the jacket of her first album. Their excuse: they didn't think blacks would buy a white girl singing as soulfully as Teena does.
"That just goes to show you that black people are much more sophisticated than they often get credit for," said Teena. "My being white made no difference to them."
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Teena's relationships with black people began long before she started recording. She lived with her black godmother for a while.
"She calls me Casper and tells everyone her goddaughter is really off-white," said Teena, smiling for the first time since we began talking. "She taught me how to cook things like greens, hot-water cornbread and fried chicken."
Besides getting lessons in soul-food culinary, Teena's godmother -- who, by the way, is immortalized in the lyrics of "Square Biz" -- shaped her with positive values and remains a consistent influence.
"She is a very beautiful, moral and ethical woman who gave me a lot of direction," said Teena. "There were times when there wasn't any money in the house, but Mama -- which is what I called her -- and her two daughters and I always found a way. Those were special times for me."
"Teena said her maternal family provided plenty of support and encouragement, too. Between her two sisters and her brother, the seeds for Teena's musical tastes were planted. They were into Motown, latin and rock -- all music that she still loves and that play important roles in the music she plays today.
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Rick James discovered Teena and produced her debut LP. She has since written and produced all her albums, including the recent Starchild. This year, Teena also produced the self-titled debut album for Q.T. Hush, a funk-oriented band from Detroit that doubles as her touring band. She also wrote and produced a song for Patti LaBelle called "Guess Who I Saw Today" which will appear on Patti's next album.
At this point in her career, things seem to be going Teena's way. So why wasn't she smiling?
"I'm very happy," she said, trying to convince me. "I'm just not into always showing it."
Good enough, I thought, that's her privelege. Besides, with her Buddha-like bodyguard stirring in the corner and ready to show me the door, I didn't feel much like smiling either. No matter -- it's gratifying to see how Teena Marie has grown as an artist and a producer in such a relatively short period of time. She's a Starchild who's not far from being a superstar.
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