It’s a new year! But I’m digging into the archives for today’s audio post. I was listening to an NPR music show called “50 Great Voices” recently and was reminded of the genius that is was and will always be Luther Vandross. There’s a lot of things that have been said about the “Luther effect” in music but I was thought it was said best in the program that I was listening too when they played a clip of Luther saying, “One thing that I love about what’s happened in my career is that I was never heralded as the new Otis Redding, the new Sam Cooke, the new Teddy Pendegrass or Smokey Robinson, I wasn’t the new anybody, I was just Luther”. This in-fact is so true, I did a little digging and listened through a few of those guys and few others and boy there is just something about Luther that you can not deny. Silky smooth is the best way I think to say it.
I grew up with his music in our house, the only full album we owned was “Power of Love”, the title track is and will always be a great performance and if you crank that up on the right set of speakers you can’t help but smile. But I’ve collected a lot of his stuff over the years and my respect for his talent has only grown.
With Luther’s remarkable catalog of essentials for any music lovers library it’s really tricky to pick out one, but I think after listening to it today you’ll have to agree that his performance of a song that Dione Warwick originally preformed and brought to light was taken leaps and bounds beyond her original version. The song is “A House is Not a Home”, he debuted it live at the 1988 NAACP Image Awards to what turned into a Jaw-Dropping crowd. You’ll notice in the video that he is essentially singing the song to Dione Warwick and she is so blown at his performance, also shown in the video is Anita Baker just in awe and a young Janet Jackson soaking it all in. I love watching this video to study his performance and his pick out his reasoning for holding back at certain moments and then letting loose at others as well as interaction with the crowd and just plain getting lost in the song. This moment is certainly a moment that most artists hope to have in their careers, it typically takes them to a more respected and certainly timeless place among their peers.
His music has always made me look deeper into the vocal performance of others and to encourage others to not be afraid to pull out the measuring stick from time to time and stay with in a certain range but when the time is right unleash the moment and allow yourself to remember why you love what gift you have been given by having a voice.
We lost Luther in July of 2005 after a life-long battle of diabetes and hyper tension his heart just gave up. But he leaves with us so many great songs and great memories.
Enjoy this tune today and be challenged to listen to something you might not normally listen too, as a lover of music I seriously challenge you today to not be afraid to turn on something you haven’t listen to in years and remember why music is still a part of your life. All love.
