![]() ![]() “Never Too Much”, the simply succulent lead single and title track, only hinted at the brilliance that Vandross would channel on the project’s key track, his seven-minute revision of the Hal David and Burt Bacharach classic “A House Is Not a Home” which was originally recorded by Dionne Warwick in 1964. Vandross first emerged in 1981 with his “debut” Never Too Much - there were two earlier releases for Cotillion with the group “Luther” - after guest stints with Change (the brilliant “Searching” and the “Glow of Love”) and on Quincy Jones’ Stuff Like That where he was paired with Patti Austin (“I’m Gonna Miss You in the Morning”) and Gwen Guthrie on a stunning version of the Doobie Brother’s classic “Taking It to the Streets”. In short, in his quest for mass commercial appeal, Luther has lost faith in Luther.įor much of his early career, Vandross was an immensely popular vocalist - the definitive male R&B vocalist - whose music was seldom consumed outside of the confines of 1980s urban radio formats. While the obvious suggestion is that Vandross is suffering from a mid-life identity crisis (see my comments about Babyface below), I would like to suggest that Vandross is instead experiencing a crisis of faith - a crisis of faith in the singular style and the immense body of work that he produced. On his new self-titled release, his first for Clive Davis’ burgeoning J label, Vandross is an artist in crisis. In a genre where vocalists are expected to be more grits and gravy than tactician (see Patti Labelle or Wanya Morris for examples), Vandross has remained the consummate tactician, while not sacrificing any of the gut-wrenching emotions that we expect from the R&B singer - a figure that is in part defined by a slick urbanity and the Soul-shout tradition that made black vocalists immensely popular figures during the past four decades. Extravagantly stylish and necessarily so. On the one hand, the nickname is an in-house linguistic joke about the proclivity of some African-American speakers to pronounce the “th” sound as an “f” sound, as in “toof decay” or “bafroom”, but it is also a term of endearment for an artist who has been on a first name basis with much of black America for more than two decades.įor some Luther Vandross is as familiar as Sweet Potato pie during Juneteenth and while his music has been consciously crafted to eschew the familiar church and chitlin’ elements that are traditionally aligned to African-American expression, Vandross remains a singular representation of late-stage black modern style. Vandross died of a heart attack at the age of 54 in July of 2005, after suffering a stroke two years earlier.TThanks to comedian Steve Harvey and a host of other folks, most of America is familiar with the name “Loofuh”, the one-name nickname of vocalist Luther Vandross. He continued his super-stardom career by releasing multiple hit solo songs but also produced records for Aretha Franklin, Diana Ross and Dionne Warwick. His solo album, “Never Too Much,” which he released in 1981, propelled him to stardom. He also became an in-demand background vocalist for the likes of Bette Midler, Roberta Flack, Diana Ross, Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder, Judy Collins and more. ![]() Vandross created the hook for Bowie’s hit Young Americans and ended up singing on nearly the entire album, co-writing the song “Fascination,” and accompanying Bowie on a national tour that fall. He wrote the song “Everybody Rejoice/Brand New Day” for the Broadway musical “The Wiz” while working as a background singer. Vandross started his career playing “Amateur Night” at the legendary Apollo Theatre in Harlem while he was in high school. He was named one of NPR’s 50 Greatest Voices in 2010 and was also awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He released 11 consecutive platinum albums, won eight Grammy Awards, after being nominated a record 33 times.Īside from winning Grammy Awards, Vandross is also a recipient of two American Music Awards and 3 NAACP Awards. Throughout his three-decade career, Vandross sold more than 40 million records worldwide. “We look forward to working with Carmen and the estate to help expand Luther’s influence.” “Luther Vandross was a soulful American icon who was the voice of a generation,” said Larry Mestel, CEO & Founder, Primary Wave Music.
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