Luther Vandross - Live at Radio City Music Hall 2003
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Free Music Notes for Live at Radio City Music Hall 2003
Free Music Review: A FIRM WARNING TO GOD...
Hit: 5 Stars
Due to various injustices suffered throughout my life, I am a self-proclaimed atheist/agnostic and have been so as long as I can remember.I tell you no lie when I say that somewhere among 'Love Won't Let Me Wait', 'Superstar', and 'A House is not a Home' I have once again rediscovered my religion. There's no guaruntee it'll stay with me so while I have it and before I offer my review of the new CD, let me share with you an internal mental memo I plan on sending to God in the very near future:
Dear GOD,
If you take this man (Luther Vandross) away from us...if you fail to restore him back to his former grandure...if you have the nerve to take him out but leave all these other talent-free, music-less wannabees around to pollute and further corrupt the very essence of soul and R&B, then sobeit. But you can forget about THIS so-called child of yours -- no more church, no more prayin', no more faith, no more tides, no more nothing from me. Nothing! You have been warned.
Signed,
I dare you to do it.
Then I thought to myself, wait a minute. HE can't be a vengeful GOD -- at least HE allowed Luther to complete this CD just before he fell ill, right?? Right??!!
So while I continue to struggle with this dilemma, allow me to throw a few numbers at you: 7 minutes, 31 seconds; 10 minutes, 25 seconds; and, the mother of them all, a whopping 12 minutes, 49 seconds!!!
Now if you're a true fan of soul/R&B, those numbers probably won't mean alot to you because they represent the playing times of the three aforementioned ballads on the new CD and, let's face it, you're lucky to get 5 minutes out of a song on a typical CD these days!!
Let's also face it that you're only need to be concerned about the ballads on this disk. While EVERY SINGLE SONG, including the mid/up-tempos, are worthy of honorable mention, it's the delivery of his classic ballads (not the newer ones) that will truly alter your state of mental being.
There are moments on this CD - especially on 'Superstar' - when the audience is so quiet as a sign of respect and in anticipation of what Luther might do next that you're completely unware that it is a live concert taped in the middle of Radio City Music Hall!! As good as the studio version of this song is, it pales by comparison to this one. The pace and delivery of his vamping near the end is so syrupy and deliberate that it'll totally disrupt your breathing pattern if you're not careful!! And it's an almost incredible 13 minutes long!!!
More of the same on 'Love Won't Let Me Wait' and 'A House is not a Home', including incredible performances by the backup singers and rhythm section, who set a perfect pace and compliment Luther to a tee. The soprano sax accompaniment on "Love Won't..." is a particularly good standout.
It's amazing when you think these are the same songs previously recorded in the studio yet the style in which Luther and his band deliver them makes them feel totally new.
Everything from his interactions with the crowd to his "attaboys and attagirls" to his band when they emotionally move him with a particular instrumental passage or phrase is done with ultimate class and style.
So, GOD, if you're listening get busy, you've got alot of work to do.
I second Gerald Levert's thoughts from his liner notes on his own new CD: Luther, get better. We need you out here.
Free Music Review: This changes everything...
Hit: 5 Stars
Editor's note: Ok, forget the sales rank numbers. I recently discovered that the lower the number, the more CDs an artist has sold so that kinda shoots my theory out of the water. Nevertheless, you just KNOW Luther's live CD is still not getting the attention it deserves. That said, read on. You'll still get the jist of what I was trying to say!!Want a quick laugh? Want to see how the vast majority of the listening/buying public has NO IDEA what real music, real talent is?
Here's what you do:
Step 1: Take a glance at Keith Sweat's Live CD on Amazon.com
Step 2: Sample one of the songs (take your pick...trust me, they
all sound tragically, atrociously the same).
Step 3 (most importantly): Look at the sales rank numbers.
Step 4: Stop, drop whatever you're doing. Immediately rush out
and buy this new Luther CD. Matter of fact, buy 4
copies just in case by some freak accident the other 3
get damaged or lost.
Step 5: Listen to ANY song the CD (trust me...they all sound
wonderfully the same - in a life-altering kind of way).
I personally recommend 'Superstar' but 'Love Won't Let
Me Wait' is just as powerful.
Step 6: Go back to Amazon.com and look at the sales rank numbers
for Luther's CD.
Granted, Luther's project is much more recent than Keith's but, regardless, even 6 months from now the sales ratio will still be the same. Now after you've done all that let it sink in for a minute. Need I say more??
You know, I don't know what makes me angrier and more frustrated -- witnessing talent like Luther's getting constantly underappreciated and underrated or non-talents like those you see holding the "#1" spots on the music charts these days selling the most records and getting the most exposure. It amazes me.
This man, with this album, has single-handedly -- no, I take that back, with the help of an outstanding supporting cast of background singers, the rhythm section, and producers -- set the bar so high in terms of TECHNICAL perfection for a live-recorded CD that I cannot imagine ANYBODY ANYTIME soon equalling this effort. Only Luther can outdo Luther.
In my opinion, it is the best ever. Only Aretha Franklin's Amazing Grace comes close...but that's another discussion for another time!
This CD is class with a capital C-L-"blew my BUM" away!!!!!
To all my old-skool counterparts out there, it's been a long time coming but your leader has finally returned. All hail Luther! All hail Luther!!
Free Music Review: The Art of Seduction...
Hit: 5 Stars
The best way to appreciate what Luther -- and his band, OH MY GOD let's please not forget that magnificent band -- has done in this live-recorded CD is to go back and listen to the studio versions of each song, particularly his classic ballads.When an true artist finally gets around to recording a live CD (and all TRUE artists eventually do!) you hope that he or she will bring a new interpretation of their material and not just sing it verbatim to what they recorded in the studio.
Then there's always that overriding fear when someone releases a live CD they'll be exposed for the fraud they truly are.
Not LV.
He's one of the a select few that actually sounds BETTER live than when he's "augmented" with electronics in a studio. And he NEVER performs his songs the same way twice -- a hallmark of creativity, ingenuity, and skill. Of course, he's been at it a very long time so anything less than perfection would be unacceptable...and perfection is what you get on this disk.
I'll agree with what I've seen in other reviews. The atmosphere on this CD is so intimate that you're completely unaware at times it's being recorded live.
Take Superstar, for example. Everybody familiar with his original version of this song knows it's the vamping/ad-libbing that he does near the end that transforms it from a story of lost love to one of subtle sexuality and seduction. Well, if you thought what he did on the original version was captivating, you will not believe what he does on this live version. With the help of angelic background singers (which are absent during the vamp on the studio version), a near perfect "bass drum" level and pacing (at the same level as the studio version but a much slower pacing!!), and his ability to stretch a harmonic phrase to its breaking point make this one of the most beautiful R&B ballads you'll likely hear in your lifetime. He does three falsetto passes just near the end that will absolutely melt your soul and send shivers down your spine. I guarantee it.
You could right a review like that for each song on the CD but his ballads steal the show by a long shot. You will be transformed after you hear them. Again, I guarantee it.
Free Music Review: Questioning my manhood...
Hit: 5 Stars
Let me first state that when last I checked I am still a man -- all 5'10, 240lbs sheer muscle of me!Yet -- mysteriously, inexplicably -- I find myself experiencing feelings I really shouldn't be experiencing as a man when I listen to this new CD. It can be said, however, that no matter what you are -- black, white, man, woman, homosexual, straight -- and no matter what type of music you like, it will be IMPOSSIBLE not to be moved by this man's voice and his technique, especially when he brings the lights down low and sings his ballads.
I've seen it mentioned in at least one other review and I have to agree that Superstar has really set the bar beyond anyone's reach for quite awhile to come. The best way to appreciate the live version is to go back and listen to the studio version and witness how the exact same song that was already a cult classic among R&B slow grooves has now been transformed into what is possibly the most intensely emotionally song ever put to "vinyl." Period. No questions asked. It all starts at EXACTLY 4 minutes into the song, where Nat Adderley Jr. lays down a jazzy/bluesy piano solo followed by Luther's signature vamp/fade-out from the original version.
This time, however, he slows it down even more than the original (if that's even possible!!) and his background singers sound like angels flown it just for the occassion and who caught the first cloud back home after the song was over!!
That's to say nothing of the live renditions of Love Won't Let Me Wait and A House is not a Home.
Steal this CD if you have to. Whatever it takes. And God forbid you're going through a relationship breakup or other emotionally taxing time...cause you can hang it up if you are. You'll be crying for months!!!
Free Music Review: Raised his own bar
Hit: 5 Stars
From time to time, I listen to my treasured vinyl of Change to hear Luther's voice when he first started, singing backup. Then, on to the vinyl of Never Too Much, and on and on, all the while recalling all of his concerts that I attended. Eventually I get to Here and Now, the song I sang to my wife at our wedding; by the end of the day, I'm listening to him singing about how his mother misses her spouse. So all in all, I'd like to think that I've been listening closely to Luther like this from time to time for the last 30 years. Every once in a while, an artist who has already been recognized by his peers as setting an industry standard raises his own bar. In this recording, Luther has done just that.
Every once in a while, a live version of a selection supplants an earlier studio version (remember EWF's "Devotion"?). This album gives you about 8 of those instances. He owns these songs. He owns the tempo, the inflections. The artist is making you privvy to a private collection of originals 30 years in the making. Looking at the jacket you might think "but I've heard these songs many times before", and my response to you would be "no, you haven't, not like this, not even in 30 years".
Finally, the album is technically perfect. A live performance recorded with the type of control audible in this recording is hard to come by.
I've decided that if I were stuck on a desert island, I'd be content with 2 recordings. One would be an undisputed landmark of classical music: Artur Rubenstein's renderings of the Chopin Nocturnes. The second would be Luther Vandross Live at Radio City Music Hall 2003.