*The son of O'Jays founder Eddie LeVert, Gerald
had a lot of pressure on him when he made decided
to become a vocalist. His fine vocal technique was
heard for the first time on the 1985 debut album
by LeVert, which also consisted of his brother
Shawn LeVert and their friend, Marc Gordon.
By the time 1988's "Just Coolin'" had become
a major US success, Gerald had already taken
time off from the parent group to produce a number
of artists with Marc, including Stephanie Mills,
James Ingram, Miki Howard, the O'Jays and Troop.
He also wrote "Whatever It Takes" for Anita Baker's
platinum-selling 1990 set, Compositions. Throw in
LSG, production work for the late great Barry White
and a his most recent sets on EastWest Records,
and you'll find that Gerald has succeeded in making
a brand name out of his own talents.
But times change. We wander from home
in search of ourselves, but sometimes we're drawn
back with a vengeance. Recently Gerald LeVert was
drawn back in a most unexpected manner, an impromptu
performance with LeVert at LA's Universal Amphitheater.
"We got back together, we came out at Universal
and the crowd went crazy," said the enthused singer.
"Now we're going back in the studio. We're going
to record some stuff and have some fun," Gerald
said. "We've talked about it and now we're basically
going to solidify it. It's just like old times. We hadn't
done this in a while."
Gerald told us that the performance was so
spontaneous that before they knew it, the guys
were literally back on stage, just like back in
the day.
"We call Shawn the coordinator," said Gerald
when asked how the trio stayed in touch. "He kept
everybody in touch and I ran into Mark again after
years and years. So, Shawn picked up Marc, we
came to the show and we did our thing."
"The last time we performed together was around
94, 95. It's been about 10 years. We did that with no
practice or talking about it. So, what do we have to
lose writing some songs together after old times.
I've done my thing and will continue to do my thing.
I never thought we'd get back together to do our thing."
You look at most successful groups and realize
they all have a common denominator, they all break
up. LeVert was no different, as we now know.
"We had our differences," said Gerald. "We
didn't agree on a number of things musically. Now
that we're older we have a better idea about what we'd
like to sing about. I know I've been through some things,
Marc has and Shawn has as well. We're grown. We
understand things better and we know each other. I'm
going to be Gerald LeVert, I'm going to do my thing and
I have my thing with my father. He has the O'Jays and
I have LeVert. It's like a franchise. As black people we
don't get together enough to try to make things happen
and I think the older you get the smarter you get regarding
this album. The O'Jays are about to get back together
as a group and even if we record a bunch a songs and
don't drop an album we can just give the O'Jays some
songs you know what I'm saying?"
Gerald LeVert is contemplating a return to the days
of his career's youth as he and his former partners in
songs reunite, but he told us that his primary focus
is to become the best male crooner he possibly can.
Though he is obviously his father's son in every sense
of the word, Gerald says he emulates the smooth,
suave mannerisms of Luther Vandross.
"I learned a lot from my dad, but I've also learned
a lot from Luther Vandross," LeVert told EUR/EURweb.
"I watched Luther and I learned a whole lot. I learned
how to pace myself. I learned that you don't have party
and tire everybody out, you can talk to the crowd.
Things like gestures that he does. I learned a lot
from him regarding how he conducts his business
and the like.
"You know, I had heard a lot of things about
Luther before I met him about him being hard to
deal with and how he's this and that, but he's about
his business. Being on stage you've gotta be about
your business, he is and that's how come he demands
the dollars that he does."
Wow, LeVert is 'bout to be back on the scene
and hopefully they'll be crispy and clean after years
of separation. That's it for now, but if you know
anything about Gerald then you know he loves
to talk about music and boy did he.
We'll have more from our conversation with
him in a future edition of EURweb. For now, if
you'd like to catch up on what he's been up to
just log on to www.geraldlevert.com. Yeah, his
web address is so obvious ... but not really.
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