Three of music’s premier romantic singers, Marvin Gaye, Teddy Pender-grass and Luther Vandross, are saluted on the tribute album Marvin, Teddy and Luther: A Smooth Urban Jazz Love Letter (Shanachie). The album consists of smooth-jazz versions of several of the legends’ biggest hits, but the tracks are given essentially the same treatment-sax and/or guitar articulating the melody, with vocals on the chorus hook-and every song ends up sounding virtually the same. There are some highlights on the album, namely saxophonist David Mann’s lovely performance on Vandross’ “So Amazing” and Kim Waters’ lyrical turn on Pendergrass’ “Is It Still Good to Ya?” but the lack of variety in the arrangements makes it difficult to distinguish one song from another. Marvin, Teddy and Luther succeeds as romantic background music, but the three legends being celebrated-and the artists doing the celebrating-certainly deserve more.
Originally PublishedRelated Posts
Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee: Backwater Blues
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Jonathan Butler: The Simple Life
Jonathan Butler’s optimistic music belies a dirt-poor childhood growing up in a South Africa segregated by apartheid. Live in South Africa, a new CD and DVD package, presents a sense of the resulting inner turmoil, mixed with dogged resolve, that paved the way to his status as an icon in his country and successful musician outside of it. Looking back, the 46-year-old Butler says today, the driving forces that led to his overcoming apartheid-the formal policy of racial separation and economic discrimination finally dismantled in 1993-were family, faith and abundant talent.
“When we were kids, our parents never talked about the ANC [African National Congress] or Nelson Mandela,” he says. Butler was raised as the youngest child in a large family. They lived in a house patched together by corrugated tin and cardboard, in the “coloreds only” township of Athlone near Cape Town. “They never talked about struggles so we never knew what was happening.”
Start Your Free Trial to Continue Reading
Become a JazzTimes member to explore our complete archive of interviews, profiles, columns, and reviews written by music’s best journalists and critics.
Harry Connick, Jr.: Direct Hits
Two decades after his commercial breakthrough, Harry Connick Jr. taps legendary producer Clive Davis for an album of crooner roots and beloved tunes
Scott LaFaro
Previously unavailable recordings and a new bio illuminate the legend of bassist Scott LaFaro