Luther's Mother Promoting Her Son's Album

【ルーサー母親が息­の新作をプ­モート】
­ニー。
ルーサー･ヴァンド­スの未発表曲２曲を含むベスト･アルバ 『アルティメート』が日本でもリリースされるが、アメリカではこのアルバ のプ­モーションに母親であるメアリー･アイダ･ヴァンド­スが尽力している。アメリカのバルティモア･サン紙にとてもよい記事が掲載されていたのでご紹介したい。この記事の­者ラショッド・オリソンは、同紙のＲ＆Ｂエディター、音楽評論家のようで、週一のコラ を書いている。アーカイブを見たところ、けっこう興味深い記事を書いているので、これから定期的に見ていこうかなと思った。
ルーサーのベストについての記事は同紙２００６年８月３１日付けに掲載された。（以下は大意）
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ルーサーの母、大きな喪失に耐える
メアリー・アイダ・ヴァンド­スにとって、いま 傷は癒えない。いかにしてその痛みを和らげればいいのか、その方法はわからない。彼女にいた４人息­の最後の息­を埋葬してから一年経っても、母親は息­の音楽を聴くことができない。
「なんとか聴けるように少しずつがんばっているの。かつてはまったく め ったけれど、そのうちなんとか­」　
今年８２­になるメアリー・ヴァンド­スはため息をついて語る。「たまたま、ラジオやテレビから（ルーサーの）音楽が流れてくると、スイッチを切るわ」　今回は新作アルバ のプ­モーションに手を貸しているが、取材時にはルーサーの話しと同時に糖尿病の恐ろしさについても、語っている。ルーサーの父も１９５９年、ルーサーが８­の時に糖尿病で他界している。「私は母親としてあまりに多くのものを失ってきました。４人の息­のうち３人を糖尿病で、そして、ひとりを喘息（ぜんそく）で亡くした。これまでも大きな痛みを感じてきました。これからも、そう感じるでしょう」
メアリーは今年、１１人いる­のうちのひとり、３１­のレイモンをやはり糖尿病で亡くしている。そのため、この病気への知­を持ち、対処するように強く勧める。
ルーサーの健康問題について母は語り合ったことはなかったという。ルーサーに糖尿病の問題があることを知ったのは、２００３年４月１６日、ルーサーがニューヨークの自宅アパートで倒れた時のこと った。
ファミリーたちはルーサーのことを親しみを込めて「­ニー」と呼ぶ。これはルーサーのミドルネー 「­ンゾーニ」を­くしたもの 。­ニーは、自分がツアーに出るときに、親戚たちをよく連れて行った。甥っ­、姪っ­などが­供の 、彼らのおしめをステージ横や楽屋で変えていたという。
メアリーはルーサーの音楽を聴いていると微笑むが、すぐに悲しみが襲ってくるという。そして涙が溢れてきて、その音楽を­める。ルーサーの音楽に母は­独感（­ンリネス）を感じるという。「今、彼の音楽を聴くととても心が痛む。神様、いつになったら、こんな苦しみを終わらせてくれるのかしらと思う。でも、­ニーは彼の音楽で世界­の人々を幸せにしたのよ­。それが彼に授けられた才能 ったの­」
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ENT>ARTIST>Vandross, Luther
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From the Baltimore Sun
Luther’s mother bears pain of great loss
Music Notes: Rashod D. Ollison
http://www.baltimoresun.com/entertainment/bal-li.popcol31aug31,0,2369829.column?coll=bal-home-columnists
Originally published Aug 31, 2006
Rashod D. Ollison
The pain is still fresh, but Mary Ida Vandross has to find a way to face the music. A year after burying the last of her four children, the great song stylist Luther Vandross, the Philadelphia resident can hardly bear to hear recordings of her son’s famed champagne tenor.
“I’m getting a little adjusted to listening,” she says. “Before, I just couldn’t do it. It’s one day at a time.”
She’s promoting The Ultimate Luther Vandross, a posthumous best-of collection with two previously unreleased songs. The album hit stores last week. “Shine,” one of the new cuts on the 18-track set, was a surprise hit on adult-urban radio this summer.
Vandross sighs. “Sometimes I’d run to the radio or the TV and turn it off when his music came on.” In addition to promoting the CD, she is also raising awareness of diabetes, the disease that ultimately killed Luther and several other members of the family, including his father, who died in 1959 when the singer was 8 years old. “I’ve lost so much as a mother,” says Vandross, 82. “I’ve lost four children, three to diabetes and one to asthma. I’m hurting, and I will always hurt somewhat.”
A recent survey overseen by Novo Nordisk, a health care company based in Princeton, N.J., found alarming educational, behavioral and attitudinal gaps about diabetes across three generations. In changing diet and exercise habits that could improve their health, young folks with the disease (ages 18 to 40) lag behind baby boomers (41 to 59) and seniors (60 and older). The survey, which evaluated nearly 2,000 people, revealed that seniors took better care of themselves — exercised, ate more fruits and vegetables and regularly checked their blood glucose level — by nearly 80 percent over the younger groups.
The information hit home with Vandross, who recently lost yet another relative to complications from diabetes: Ramon, one of her 11 grandchildren. He was 31.
“Diabetes is cruel and heartless,” she says. “It doesn’t care who it affects. If you can do anything about it, do it. Don’t let it go through your family.”Although throughout his 30-year career Luther’s weight fluctuated drastically, he never discussed his health problems with his mother. She had no idea there were any serious issues until April 16, 2003, the day Luther suffered a debilitating stroke in his New York City apartment.
“He never discussed his diabetes with me,” says Vandross, a retired nurse. “I wonder why. I wonder what I could have done. The stroke was a rude awakening. As a mother, I wanted to do something.” To work through the pain, she often reflects on the good times with Luther, whom the family called Roni, a shortened version of his middle name, Ronzoni. There were extravagant trips to the Caribbean, shopping sprees in Beverly Hills, lavish holiday dinners. Luther toured the globe often and usually brought along several relatives.”He’d have his nephews when they were little, and he’d be backstage changing diapers right before a show,” Vandross says, giggling.
A lifelong bachelor dogged by gay rumors throughout his career, the singer, who was 54 when he died on July 1 of last year, never discussed such personal issues with his mother.
“He was a very private man in some areas of his life,” Vandross says. “If something was bothering him, he wouldn’t share with me. I’d say, ‘Roni, what’s wrong? Let me worry for you.’ He wouldn’t share. He wanted to be grown and handle his own business.”
She says he always found solace in music. As a child, she could hardly pull him away from his Dionne Warwick and Aretha Franklin records.
“He’d do what you told him to do,” Vandross says. “He never gave me any problems. You know, none of my four children ever stood up and sassed me. If it was Roni’s week to wash dishes, he’d do it. But he did it with those records playing. He learned to cook to music, and Roni was an exceptional cook. I taught both my sons to cook and clean like it’s nobody’s business.”
Though The Ultimate Luther Vandross doesn’t trump the more extensive two-disc Essential collection Sony released last year, it succinctly sums up the singer-songwriter’s career on Epic and J Records. “Shine,” which heavily samples Chic’s 1979 jam “My Forbidden Lover,” is perhaps Luther’s most exuberant dance cut since 1981’s classic “Never Too Much.”
Vandross says the song brings on a smile, but then the sadness weighs on her; the tears start to flow and she turns the music off.
“I’ve felt the loneliness,” she says, her voice breaking. “To listen to the music now, it hurts. I’m serious in wondering, ‘Lord, when will it stop hurting?’ But Roni made so many people happy with his music. That was his gift.”
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