Here and Now
When Luther Vandross succumbed several months ago to the effects of a stroke he suffered in 2003, the world lost a great singer, a tireless self promoter with a razor keen vision of his place in the pantheon, and a top tier tunesmith. Those who worked with Luther remember a perfectionist who would coax, cajole and demand the best out of others, and himself.
Born in the lower east side of Manhattan, Vandross met Nat Adderley, Jnr., who would co-write and produce a number of Luther's classic hits, including “Stop To Love” and “Give Me The Reason,” while both were attending the prestigious High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. "We were in a group called Listen My Brother, which was like the Voices Of East Harlem," says Adderley, who seemed a bit stunned to be speaking of his friend entirely in the past tense. "There were 10 or 12 great singers in the group---Luther certainly wasn't the top singer---and we did political skits, and songs about peace and love. We all became friends."
While attending Yale, Adderley received a call from Vandross asking him to play keyboards on one of his friend's early records. This effort led to a career-long collaboration that included work on Luther's first Grammy winning recording, “Here and Now,” in 1989.
The story of how Vandross came across“Here and Now” has been told before. "Luther was hanging out with Dionne Warwick, one of his earliest idols, and she played him a tape of a song that her son, David Elliott, had written with his partner Terry Steele. None of us could believe how good it sounded! And I'm not just talking about the song itself; the arrangement was nearly all there. Luther and I added the bridge to give the tune a lift, and I wrote the string arrangement the night before we recorded it at Westlake Studios in LA, but there was really very little that needed to be done to help the song."
Marcus Miller has similar recollections. "When Luther played me the demo it was obvious that it was already a hit," says Miller from the south of France. "You could tell that it was a sentimental, beautiful, and honest song, and that it was perfect for Luther.
"I'd been working with Luther since 1983, and so we had our work process down by this time. I played synth bass on “Here and Now”, but I hung around the studio all of the time. If they needed me to play a sound, or help get a sound with Jason Miles, I was there. I always wanted to make sure that I lent my full abilities to any track I was a part of with Luther.
"I laid the synth bass against the main Rhodes piano that Nat had laid down, and a drum track. There might also have been a scratch vocal in place. I knew the song well enough to put my fills in the right places. I do remember that I laid down the bass part in one track with a few overdubs.
"Luther was the funniest guy you'd ever meet. As long as everyone was doing their job we'd be laughing all day long! That's what I'll remember most about him: how much fun we had making those records. He was also the first guy I met who had a vision about who he was, and who made that vision a reality. He'd invest his own money when it was necessary, and that was inspiring to me. Once he went on tour, and he told me that he was going to pump his own money into it, to make it an extravagant experience for his fans, who he believed would keep coming to his shows as a result. He was right! For the next 15 years, if Luther came to town you had to see him, and you knew you'd get your money's worth.
"Luther was an incredible artist, the first singer I met who was as knowledgable about his instrument---and articulate about it---as we players were about ours. We'd be working on a track and he'd point out that he was going to be behind the beat here, or a touch sharp there. He'd show me where he would be singing straight tones, and when he'd add some vibrato. The work he did as a jingle singer helped him develop his craft. Through the years we worked together he never lost any of his soul. He was the consummate professional."
"Like Marcus said, we knew the song would be a smash the first time Luther played it for us," says Jason Miles. "Back then it took some effort to overcome the problems with midi timing and make things groove. I used a Roland SBX-80 to move notes around and offset timings in the sequencer. There was some real science going on!
"Luther was funny. He'd hear Marcus and I discussing all of this technical stuff---which he didn't understand or care about in the least---and shake his head. One day he comes up to me and says, "Jason, write down five technical things, so that when Marcus walks in I sound like I know what I'm talking about." I think I wrote that we need to offset the vocal by four bits, and quantize this or that part. So Marcus walks in and Luther pulls him aside, looks at the paper, and says "Marcus, let me ask you a question... can we offset the vocal by four bits?" and then starts cracking up. But he really embraced technology; he wanted the coolest synths on his records. R&B was Luther's love, but he wanted to be on the cutting edge of pop.
"As far as the programming on “Here and Now” went down, it was obvious that the Rhodes sound was going to be prominent on the record. I'd walk Nat through the MPC 60 sequencer I had. Nat has a way of working chords from the inside on an r&b ballad that's quite good, and he understood Luther's attitude towards ballads. Nat played the basic keyboard part into the sequencer using a standard DX7 Rhodes sound, and I layered different sounds to create the texture that was used on the record."
Ray Bardini, Luther's long time engineer, took a break from mixing Dr. John's new record at Sound On Sound to share his memories of the “Here and Now” sessions. "The basic tracks were recorded at The Hit Factory, in studio A2, I believe. We recorded onto an analog 2" 24 track machine at +6, and eventually transferred it to 48 tracks.
"In those days most people worked the same way we did; we printed all of the drum machine parts, and then Nat played the main keyboard part. This Rhodes-style sound was a combination of synths that Nat and Jason Miles midi'd together. Next came Marcus' synth bass part, and then the drummer Ivan Hampton was brought in to add live cymbal overdubs. All of this work was tracked on the Hit Factory's SSL4000G+, which was my favorite board at the time. Everything went through some outboard processors; we took in the drum machine kick and snare through some Neve mic-pre's, and some API and Massenburg eq's were also used. The keyboards and cymbals came through the console only, but we did record Marcus' synth bass through a dbx160 and a Massenburg eq.
"From there we headed out to LA, because we'd already recorded two multi-platinum albums there, and we liked that studio. I made a slave tape to record the string section, which was split out to four tracks; first violins, second violins, violas, and cellos. Luther liked to use the traditional string panning, and no room mics; he liked the closer, fuller sound. We also recorded Paul Jackson Jnr.'s guitar track at Westlake.
"Next we added some additional synth overdubs, using Jason Miles' synth rack. Nat and Marcus would program a part, and Jason was responsible for making it sound unique. In general Luther knew what he wanted, but he gave us all the time and creative freedom to try things.
"After this work was completed everyone cleared out except for Luther and me, and we got down to work on his main vocal. I remember that this was on July 3, 1989. Luther was very interesting to work with; that session he told me that he wanted to start tracking the bridge first, so that he'd know what he'd be working towards, dramatically. We worked for a number of hours and he told me that there was not going to be a day off for the 4th of July, so we came in the next day, and Luther began singing.
"He began to sing, worked for a little while, and then said, "Ray, do I sound as bad as I think I do today?" I told him yes! He laughed and said let's just call everyone up and have a barbecue at my house---he was living in Beverly Hills at the time. We had a great time, and the next day he came back to the studio and sang the song as you hear it on the record. Luther was so smart about his work. He'd come up with a great lick in the studio, but decide not to record it. He distinguished between recordings and live work, and felt that some licks should be left off a record, no matter how good they might be. At the time we used an AKG414 on his voice; Luther liked its presence, and he didn't like any microphone that added body to his voice. We used a Neve 1074 mic pre, and a dbx 150 or 165 compressor with the over easy and also a Massenburg eq. We'd have the same chain wherever we recorded Luther's vocals."
"Luther was definitely a perfectionist, and here's an example: we started to track background vocals at Westlake with LA session singers. We ended up doing three sessions, with three different sets of very good singers, but Luther wasn't getting what he wanted. So he called back to New York and flew out Lisa Fischer, Brenda White, and Tawatha, I believe, to get the sound he was looking for.
"Westlake had a Harrison console that I loved, but I wanted to use the SSL automation to mix, so we went to A&M to mix. In fact, this is where the girls recorded their vocals. I'd always try to come up with a trick on Luther's records, and on this one I spent a long time working on the ambience of the claps that appear on the backbeats of the verses. Marcus came in early on the day of the mix and asked me what I was doing with them--- he thought they sounded weird. Then Luther arrives, and the first thing he noticed was the claps, and he said how much he liked them. Marcus laughed and told us we were both out of our minds!
"Luther was one of the most generous guys you'd ever want to meet. I recall that several days after we finished this record a tuxedo arrived at my door, along with a note from Luther thanking me, and telling me that the tux was for me to wear to the Grammies. We worked together for 22 years, and he was one of the most amazingly talented artists you'll ever meet."
Luther died at the age of 54. Too young to pass, some might say. But his enormous talent and fierce dedication led Luther Vandross to create a body of work---including “Here and Now,” for which he won the Best Male R&B Vocal Performance Grammy award in 1991---that will endure.
