| The David Nathan Pages |
LUTHER ARE GOOD FOR THE SOUL June 1976, In person interview conducted by David Nathan in New York City, office of Simo Doe at Atlantic Records " Luther are three girls and two guys whose debut single for Cotillion is attracting a lot of attention. They are not headliners yet, but they’ve been putting in a lot of ground work on building a solid reputation." Thus began the first of what would be many interviews David Nathan would conduct over almost thirty years with Luther Vandross, then emerging as an in-demand jingle and background session singer in Manhattan and coincidentally a neighbor of David's on W. 56th St. (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises, All rights reserved |
CURRENTLY creating a good deal of interest with their debut single for the newly-reactivated Cotillion label is Luther. “It’s Good For
The Soul” is already paving the way for the group’s debut album which was completed but a few weeks back in their hometown, New
York.
The five-member unit (three girls , two guys) were happy to explain how they first got together and to talk about some of their plans for
the future. The group’s main man is Luther Vandross – who wrote and produced the album – and he started the ball rolling by relating
the very beginnings of Luther as a group.
“Well, Diane and I went to school together and we met up with Anthony – the three of us were singing together for a good while, since ’
66. Then, we were members of a workshop – Peter Long’s Listen My Brother in New York.
Prior to that there was no question that Luther was going to be into music as a profession – “I’d sit around singing with records by
Shirelles and Patti Labelle whilst everyone was out playing baseball!”
But a couple of years later Luther was getting it together in the recording studios. “In the summer of ’73, we signed with Avco Embassy
and worked with Paul Riser and we were there for a year. But we didn’t have any product out whilst we were there, there were problems
over the budget, to be honest.”
The big break for the group came when one of the Main ingredient’s guitarists, Carlos Alomar was recommended to David Bowie for a
session on Britain’s own Lulu by Tony Silvester. Next thing Luther knew he was down at Philly’s Sigma Sound Studios working out the
vocal arrangements for Bowie’s “Young Americans” album. It was but a matter if time before David asked the group on tour with him.
“We came along at a time when David was going through a concept change and we think we were partly responsible for it. We had the
opening spot for David too, on which we did a combination of original material and other people’s songs”...
 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| You may read the rest of this copywritten Soul Music.com archived article and receive it by e-mail by purchasing it for $0.99 via PayPal. Once payment is received, we will send a copy to you via -email. Please note that by purchasing this article, you agree to our Soul Music.com Archive Terms Of Service. Please read the Terms Of Service here; any infringement of copyright or unauthorized distribution of this material is subject to legal action. |
| LUTHER (group) 1976 Interview (LUT-76-2007) Conducted by David Nathan, (c) 2007, David Nathan/SCI Enterprises |
