The attempt to translate R&B achievement into pop success often involves a cruel irony: The most compelling features of black music are often compromised by artists' crossover ambitions. Fortunately, recent albums by Luther Vandross and Anita Baker, two standard-bearers of contemporary black pop, offer ample evidence that even as you venture from home base, you can keep the fire that defined your appeal.
was nurtured. This album of remakes of well-known songs enlarges Vandross' delightful fetish for "Lutherization," innovatively shaping a classic song with his unique musical signature. Vandross' vocal style weds the emotional range and stylistic sensibilities of female artists like Aretha Franklin to the hopeful romanticism outlined in the masculine fluidity of Sam Cooke.
On "Killing Me Softly" (Roberta Flack), "Reflections" (Diana Ross and the Supremes), "What the World Needs Now" (Dionne Warwick), "Since You've Been Gone" (Franklin) and "Evergreen" (Barbra Streisand), Vandross recasts lyrics originally interpreted by a pantheon of his female influences. He invests the songs with shades of meaning through ad-libs and melismas, sonically embellished by orchestral arrangements, gospel harmonies and dense vocal layerings of his own voice. On "Killing Me Softly" he counterpoises the lyric "And then he looked right through me/As if I wasn't there" with the aside "I was right there," further personalizing an already intimate revelation. And on "Since You've Been Gone," Vandross reinforces the plea for a departed lover's return with thickly textured vocal support perforated by the singer's own witness.
Vandross' exploration of male, duo and group territory is equally intriguing. His gospel-tinged version of Stephen Stills' "Love the One You're With" ironically highlights the song's decidedly secular admonition to love by convenience more than principle. And his reprise of McFadden and Whitehead's inspirational "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now" houses up the feel-good exhortation to overcome negativity. Although his treatment of Lionel Richie's "Hello" is breathtaking, faithful without being merely imitative, Vandross' earthy treatment of Rod Temperton's "Always and Forever" is too subdued; Vandross' baritone appears uninspired when compared with the ethereal rendition of the song by Johnnie Wilder. While there may be no stunning surprises on Songs, this collection, brilliant in many spots, proves that Vandross is a master of musical reinterpretation.
Anita Baker interprets a few classics as well, though her focus on Rhythm of Love is on enriching her artistic vocabulary while expanding her musical base. Baker's covers of "The Look of L
