Today marks a return for me to some musical roots I had left behind..after the awesome bands of the 60's and 70's...the 80's presented a big void in the music scene for me...I got into Disco...some Jazz and blues and reached back to an "old friend"...R&B music...the return to "soul" music...not the Motown type...more like the golden voice type... artists like Jeffrey Osborne and of course..."the big man"...Luther Vandross...I was really smitten with Luther's voice...so smooth...like Lou Rawls but with more depth. Luther's tenor range earned him the title of "the velvet voice"...some called him the Pavarotti of Pop..I practically wore out my laser disc of his songs...and at the time I was in a relationship and she loved Luther's voice...he did a ton of back up vocals with famous artists...and usually made cover songs sound better than the originals...he finally lost his battle with diabetes and high blood pressure and died of a heart attack at the age of 54 on July 1, 2005...the disc I purchased was his last work...he appeared on the 2004 Grammy award show to accept his song of the year award...shortly after that show he was on Oprah and that is the last time he was seen in public..
