A difficult time, a reason to smile

For R&B; powerhouse singer Luther Vandross, the latest coup -- five Grammy nominations for his 15th album, “Dance With My Father” -- is another bittersweet turn in an emotional roller coaster of a year. He suffered a massive stroke in his Manhattan home April 16, shortly after recording the album. Vandross has been fighting a day-to-day battle to recover, with his devoted mother persistently at his side.

Mary Ida Vandross was a high-profile force early in her son’s slow recovery, holding prayer vigils, keeping his name in the spotlight. When the album was released in June, it was Mrs. Vandross who started the promotional ball rolling on his Web site with this statement: “I’m so grateful that he can get this chance. He is going to recover and when he does I want him to be greeted with a big success story.”

She couldn’t have engineered it any better.

Carmen Romano, Vandross’ business manager, spoke to her shortly after the nominations were announced. “She was thrilled and crying on the phone, because of the bittersweet nature of all of this. We’re excited about these awards, but the reality is that they are calling her to get her reaction, because they can’t call Luther.”

Mary Ida Vandross has been shuttling a nonstop stream of friends and family to a New Jersey rehab center to help buoy her son’s spirits. Since coming out of a coma in June, the singer has shown steady improvement -- he has reportedly been standing and walking, even talking. Singing? Says Romano, “I must caution people on that. He’s improved leaps and bounds, but we have to remember he’s coming from ground zero.”

“Dance With My Father,” on Clive Davis’ J Records, debuted at No. 1, with 442,000 albums sold its first week in stores. To date, 1.5 million copies have been sold.

Since Vandross was unable to work on a video to promote the title track, a group of artists including Quincy Jones, Wyclef Jean, Patti LaBelle, Celine Dion, Beyonce and “American Idol” winner Ruben Studdard picked up the slack -- turning it into a video get-well card. And last month, Vandross, 52, won two American Music Awards -- favorite male soul/R&B; artist and favorite album in that same field.

The announcement, says Davis, “has had a great deal of emotional impact. For him it was the album of his life, and I agreed with him. So to see this peer recognition means a lot. And it was merited.”

Vandross has won four Grammys during his career, but Romano suggests that the song of the year nomination -- a category he’s never won -- will have the most impact. “He has always been so respected as a singer and a performer and underappreciated as a songwriter and producer. So this nomination -- if he understands the news -- will send him over the top.”