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Vandross Funeral Full of ‘Jet’ Moments

Black Media, Small and Large, at ‘Homegoing’

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Wearing the saffron yellow that her friend liked, Patti Labelle paid tribute to Luther Vandross. (Credit: YouTube)

Black Media, Small and Large, at ‘Homegoing’

The funeral for singer Luther Vandross in New York today was a cornucopia of Jet moments: those times when the photographers lunge to capture the moment for the black community’s historical and cultural record.

Vandross died July 1 at age 54, never fully recovering from a stroke he suffered in 2003. He had sold more than 30 million records and won eight Grammy awards.

More than 2,000 people were at New York’s Riverside Church — which only in February hosted services for actor Ossie Davis — and perhaps 95 percent were African American. In life, Vandross longed for that “crossover” audience who would appreciate his genius, but judging from services today, it was his base — the black community — that would love him most and embrace him in its cultural and religious traditions.

That could explain why, while some big-city media outlets were represented among the press corps, there were also Coreen Simpson of Inside New York, freelancer Jamie Walker, Shirley Scott of the New York Beacon, Herb Boyd of The Black World Today and the New York Amsterdam News, Michelle Miller of BET News and Clarence Waldron of, of course, Jet magazine, with photographer Tyrone Rasheed.

They were in the knot of reporters in the church’s press section. On the other side, sitting among the Revs. Jesse Jackson, Michael Eric Dyson and Al Sharpton, near author Maya Angelou and songwriting singers and producers Ashford & Simpson, were Gayle King, Oprah Winfrey best friend, Jamie Foster of Sister 2 Sister magazine and Vy Higginson, a playwright, author and magazine editor in New York’s black community. (Others spotted singers Usher and Alicia Keys).

The Jet moments came from Patti LaBelle, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick and Vandross’ “right hand man,” Fonzi Thornton, who all spoke or performed during the more than two-hour service. The moments came earlier at the famed Apollo Theater, where the marquee read “Luther Vandross, 1951-2005; Believe in the Power of Love,” a message also beamed today from the front of Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall.

At the Apollo, a truck from WBLS-FM was parked outside as a crowd waited in the rain for the funeral procession to arrive, many holding posters given out for the occasion reading, “Forever/ For Always/ For Love/ Luther.” A bus driver would say later that he heard the service live on 98.7 KISS-FM, another “urban”-formatted station. Later, ABC-TV included a segment on the send-off on “Nightline,” noting the good vibrations.

“This isn’t just because Luther Vandross was talented and beloved, but it’s also such a community event, and we cover the community,” Kathleen Horan told Journal-isms, explaining why she was there for public station WNYC-FM. “It’s just an amazing convergence of classes and colors and celebrities and regular people. It’s sort of an historic event.”

One can choose among the Jet moments:

“It was a first-rate revival meeting,” pronounced David Hinckley of the New York Daily News.

Others saw it more broadly. “It was an outstanding funeral,” said photographer J. Conrad Williams of Newsday. “It was really moving and pretty emotional. It was well done. I didn’t think that it was out of control. We were handled professionally; it was very comfortable” to cover.

“It was phenomenal,” said James Earl Hardy, a novelist who said he did not know for whom he’d write about the event. “Luther was truly loved because he gave so much love.” Hardy noted that his own latest novel is titled “A House Is Not a Home.”

“Amazing. When you think about where he came from,” said the singer Nona Hendryx, LaBelle’s partner in the ’60s group Patti LaBelle and the Blue Belles, “and you think about how he was capable of touching as many people as he has. I’ve known him since he was a teen-ager. He was president of our fan club.”

[Added July 9:]

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