FATHER & SON FUNK

The Times-Picayune, January 21, 2005, p24
by Keith Spera
Copyright, 2005, The Times-Picayune Publishing Corporation

 

Gerald Levert ranks his current tour with his father, Eddie Levert, as one of the most rewarding and enjoyable experiences of his career, despite the brutal workload.

He and the senior Levert are both onstage for much of the two-hour-plus concert. For months, they’ve logged four and five shows a week. Now in its final stretch, the tour stops at the Saenger Theatre on Sunday.

"We’re doing it like the chitlin circuit," Gerald Levert said, laughing, during a phone interview on a rare day off this week. "Just no matinees. You throw a matinee in there, I quit."

Their joint tour represents a cross-generational contemporary R&B summit where both generations boast distinguished resumes.

Eddie Levert was a founding member of The O’Jays, one of the reigning R&B vocal groups of the 1970s. Between 1972 and 1978, the Canton, Ohio-based group notched eight No. 1 R&B singles, including "Back Stabbers," "Love Train," "For the Love of Money" and "I Love Music (Part 1)." Eddie was the group’s "antic man," cavorting and sweating and letting it all hang out. He continues to tour and record with The O’Jays.

Gerald Levert and his brother Sean first came to prominence in the mid-1980s with their own band, Levert. More hip-hop-influenced than their father, Levert’s hits included "(Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop) Goes My Mind," "Casanova" and "My Forever Love."

Gerald Levert then recorded with Keith Sweat and Johnny Gill as LSG, and launched a solo career. His latest album is "Do I Speak For the World" (Elektra Records).

Although Gerald has filled in for his ailing father with the O’Jays and toured with the O’Jays as a special guest, he and Eddie had never toured as a father-and-son act. This tour almost didn’t happen. Levert thought he and his father should record a joint album first. If not, he wanted to tour separately.

"I was the bad son," Levert said. "I was not returning Dad’s calls. He was leaving messages like, ‘Son, I love you. Just talk to me.’ I knew if I talked to him, he would break me down and I’d cry and get sentimental."

Deeper issues were at play. Levert still harbored unresolved resentment from his parents’ divorce 20 years ago.

"That hurt me real bad," he said. "I loved when my dad came home. Not to see him come home any more devastated me, and it hurt my mom a lot. I was a mama’s and a daddy’s child. The way everything happened was funky, and it hurt me for a long time. I never knew I had so many ill feelings deep down inside until this came up."

He finally contacted Eddie after a radio interviewer discussed his estrangement from his own father.

"We talked it out. He was able to understand it, and I was able to understand him. It all came full circle. Now, we can be men and do what we’ve got to do."

That included a joint tour, backed by musicians drawn from their respective groups.

"This has been the funnest tour I’ve ever done in my life," he said. "(My father) said it’s the most fun he’s ever had, because he hasn’t had the stress of being in a group and having to be diplomatic.

"Me and him usually agree on everything. I know my place as his son, and he respects me so much that sometimes I feel like I’m the father. If somebody makes a mistake, we laugh through it."

There’s lots of joking and emotion, both on and off-stage.

"We see a lot of people crying," Levert said. "We’ll get choked up -- and we’re not two guys to cry. We look at each other like, ‘You made me do this in front of all these people!’ "

Generally, they each showcase only one track from their current albums. The bulk of the show is devoted to classics.

"I was in L.A. a week prior to our tour and they were telling me how when Aretha Franklin came to L.A., she just did a few hits. We were leaning toward that, too. Then I was like, ‘Dad, we can’t do that.’ Cause they were talking about Aretha so bad on the radio out there."

They’re also paying tribute to other stars of R&B.

"We’re doing tributes to people who passed, people who were friends," Levert said. "Barry White was like an uncle to me. Otis Redding was a good friend to my father. Grover Washington was a good friend of ours."

So, too, is Luther Vandross. He and Levert were planning their second tour together when a stroke incapacitated Vandross in 2003. Over the years, Levert and Vandross supported one another in their respective struggles with weight. Vandross once presented Levert with an expensive sweater that Levert couldn’t wear until he slimmed down.

"I still can’t fit in it," Levert said. "That sweater is way too small. He said, ‘When you can fit this, I know you lost some weight.’ I would love to have a day, when he comes back, that I’ll be able to wear that sweater in front of his face: ‘Now let’s see if you can wear it.’ "

Levert was on hand for the Essence Music Festival’s Vandross tribute in the Superdome in July 2003. He tore up "Superstar," then joined Patti Labelle on "If Only For One Night."

"For me, it was really a deep moment," Levert said. "And for Patti, too. Luther has one of the most impeccable voices ever."

For the Essence show, Levert dressed up. But in a break with R&B tradition, he and his father are casually attired on their current tour.

"The fans are dressed to the nines, with ties and hats, and people expect us to be dressed to the nines, with suits," he said. "Instead, we come out in jeans and jackets and boots and have a ball.

"By the end of the night, they understand what we’re trying to put across. We’ve always wanted to do like the Bee Gees did, like Phil Collins and them. They always dressed comfortable, like they get out of the car and go onstage. We get in the dressing room and we’ve got to put on ties and cuff links. We wanted to do it like the rockers."

The aim is to enjoy themselves, together.

"We’re having fun," Levert said. "And it’s proving that it could be done in a different form. It didn’t have to be The O’Jays and Gerald Levert. It could be just me and my dad.

"What we symbolize is family. That’s what we’re trying to put an emphasis on. Family, and staying close, and how important it is to let them know you love them. I thought we could never be stronger as friends. This has made us tighter than we’ve ever been."

 

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