Raw Silk

History

Ron Dean Miller and Bert Reid, members of Crown Heights Affair, formed Raw Silk in 1982. The group signed with West End Records, a garage label, and released their debut single "Do It to the Music" in July 1982. The track became a club hit, reaching number 5 on the US Billboard Hot Dance/Disco Club Play chart and entering the Top 40 on the US Hot Black Singles chart. It also peaked in the Top 20 on the UK Singles chart, leading to a performance on Top of the Pops in October 1982.

After the single's release, Sybil Thomas could not tour, so Valarie Pettiford, then performing in the Broadway production Sophisticated Ladies, joined the lineup. The new group debuted on Top of the Pops in October 1982, with Pettiford lip-syncing to Thomas's lead vocals. In an October 1982 interview with Record Mirror, the group stated they were recording songs for an album. Their second single, "Just in Time," released in August 1983, was less successful, reaching only the Top 40 of the US Billboard R&B chart and UK Singles chart. Raw Silk disbanded at the end of 1983 without releasing an album.

Disbandment and aftermath

After Raw Silk split up in 1983, each member moved on to individual projects. Jessica Cleaves joined forces with George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic, singing on four of his Family Series albums from the early 1990s: Go Fer Yer Funk, Plush Funk, Testing Positive 4 the Funk, and A Fifth of Funk. Tenita Jordan became a session singer and backed Teddy Pendergrass on his albums Love Language and Workin' It Back. She signed to his label Top Priority Records in 1985, and the next year put out her own debut album Tenita, which featured the singles "I Don't Wanna Think About It", "You Got Me Dreamin'", and "Free Me".

She kept working as a session vocalist, contributing to Lenny Kravitz's 1998 album 5 and providing background vocals for Angie Stone's Black Diamond and Mahogany Soul. From 2000 to 2005, she toured as a backup singer for Stone. Jordan died on September 23, 2018. Sybil Thomas also stayed in session work.

In 1983, Gramavision Records hired her to sing on Jay Hoggard's Love Survives and Oliver Lake's Plug It. Two years later, Japan's Apollon Music Industrial Corp. brought her in for Hiroshi Fukumura's Hot Shot and Barry Finnerty's Lights On Broadway. She released her first solo album, Breathe, on Kultone Records in March 2018, with the singles "Keep It Fired Up" and "So Fo Real". Valarie Pettiford, who stepped in for Thomas during Raw Silk's 1982 tour, built a career in acting.

She earned a Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and a Dora Mavor Moore Award nomination for her work in the Broadway show Fosse. From 2002 to 2006, she played Deirdre "Big Dee Dee" LaFontaine Thorne on the UPN sitcom Half & Half.