Biography
Herbie Hancock bestowed the nickname "the man with the golden throat" upon Jon Lucien, who stood as the foremost balladeer of the fusion years. Endowed with a profound, silky timbre perfectly suited to love songs, the singer's refined fusion of soul, understated jazz, and Caribbean grooves never attained sales figures equal to the admiration he received from reviewers and fellow artists.
Born Lucien Harrigan on January 8, 1942, in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, he spent his childhood on the adjacent island of St. Thomas. A devoted admirer of Nat King Cole, the teenager played bass with Rico and the Rhythmaires, the ensemble fronted by his father, Eric. During the mid-'60s he moved to upstate New York, where he cut radio advertisements and appeared at social events including parties, weddings, and bar mitzvahs. One performance drew the notice of RCA executive Ernie Alshulter, who soon offered the singer a recording contract.
Adopting the name Jon Lucien, the artist proved a capable songwriter, yet the label restricted his own material on the 1970 debut I Am Now to a single composition and instead required a sequence of jazz and pop standards. "The record company was attempting to package me as a sort of 'Black Sinatra,'" Lucien later reflected. "Once the white women started to swoon at my performances, their attitudes quickly changed." After three years of preparation, the successor album Rashida contained only Lucien originals. Both the title track and the bossa nova-flavored single "Lady Love" received some U.S. airplay, while the project earned enthusiastic critical praise and secured a Grammy nomination for arranger Dave Grusin.
Although 1974's Mind's Eye appeared to place Lucien on the verge of mainstream success, his shift to Columbia for Song for My Lady disrupted that trajectory, and after 1976's Premonition the label ended the agreement. He reappeared that same year on jazz-rock bassist Alphonso Johnson's Yesterday's Dreams and contributed to fusion supergroup Weather Report's Mr. Gone in 1978. Not until 1982 did Lucien resume solo work with the Precision release Romantico. "My frustration stemmed from being asked to be a hit-maker...do disco, country...whatever it takes to sell millions," he recalled. "I struggled for the executives to understand my music."
Lucien endured further hardship in 1980 when his young daughter Zeudi Jacira drowned. He spent much of the ensuing decade contending with drug dependency and returned to the Virgin Islands in the mid-'80s before settling in Puerto Rico. The 1991 comeback album Listen Love placed him on quiet storm radio playlists, and 1993's Mother Nature's Son likewise found favor at contemporary jazz stations. Tragedy struck again in 1996 when his daughter Dalila perished aboard TWA flight 800, which went down off the coast of Long Island. (The 1997 album Endless Is Love honors her memory.) In later years Lucien resolved his conflicts with the industry by establishing his own imprint, Sugar Apple Music. Persistent health concerns ultimately led to his death from respiratory failure in Orlando, Florida, on August 18, 2007.
Born Lucien Harrigan on January 8, 1942, in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, he spent his childhood on the adjacent island of St. Thomas. A devoted admirer of Nat King Cole, the teenager played bass with Rico and the Rhythmaires, the ensemble fronted by his father, Eric. During the mid-'60s he moved to upstate New York, where he cut radio advertisements and appeared at social events including parties, weddings, and bar mitzvahs. One performance drew the notice of RCA executive Ernie Alshulter, who soon offered the singer a recording contract.
Adopting the name Jon Lucien, the artist proved a capable songwriter, yet the label restricted his own material on the 1970 debut I Am Now to a single composition and instead required a sequence of jazz and pop standards. "The record company was attempting to package me as a sort of 'Black Sinatra,'" Lucien later reflected. "Once the white women started to swoon at my performances, their attitudes quickly changed." After three years of preparation, the successor album Rashida contained only Lucien originals. Both the title track and the bossa nova-flavored single "Lady Love" received some U.S. airplay, while the project earned enthusiastic critical praise and secured a Grammy nomination for arranger Dave Grusin.
Although 1974's Mind's Eye appeared to place Lucien on the verge of mainstream success, his shift to Columbia for Song for My Lady disrupted that trajectory, and after 1976's Premonition the label ended the agreement. He reappeared that same year on jazz-rock bassist Alphonso Johnson's Yesterday's Dreams and contributed to fusion supergroup Weather Report's Mr. Gone in 1978. Not until 1982 did Lucien resume solo work with the Precision release Romantico. "My frustration stemmed from being asked to be a hit-maker...do disco, country...whatever it takes to sell millions," he recalled. "I struggled for the executives to understand my music."
Lucien endured further hardship in 1980 when his young daughter Zeudi Jacira drowned. He spent much of the ensuing decade contending with drug dependency and returned to the Virgin Islands in the mid-'80s before settling in Puerto Rico. The 1991 comeback album Listen Love placed him on quiet storm radio playlists, and 1993's Mother Nature's Son likewise found favor at contemporary jazz stations. Tragedy struck again in 1996 when his daughter Dalila perished aboard TWA flight 800, which went down off the coast of Long Island. (The 1997 album Endless Is Love honors her memory.) In later years Lucien resolved his conflicts with the industry by establishing his own imprint, Sugar Apple Music. Persistent health concerns ultimately led to his death from respiratory failure in Orlando, Florida, on August 18, 2007.
Albums
