Ava Cherry

Ava Cherry (born 1953) is an American singer and model. She collaborated with English musician David Bowie between 1972 and 1975; the two met in New York City when she was a nightclub waitress and Bowie was touring for The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. Afterwards, they began a period of personal and artistic collaboration that heavily influenced the Young Americans "blue-eyed soul" era. Following this, she struck out as a solo singer and backing artist for musicians such as Luther Vandross and Chaka Khan.

Growing up in Chicago with significant exposure to the local African-American music culture, Cherry became an influence in the works of a number of pre-eminent artists, as well as a respected musician in her own right. Cherry's influence on Young Americans through her connections to major soul music institutions such as Sigma Sound Studios and the Apollo Theater has proven a particularly noted part of her legacy, as has her contemporaneous work with proto-new wave band the Astronettes.

Cherry's solo career has been long-running, with her first album Ripe!!! released in 1980. Her solo work, known for its disco influence, has received a mostly positive critical reception but a lack of commercial success: factors blamed for this critical and commercial disconnect include racial discrimination within the music industry and backlash against her predominant genres.

In January 2022 she released her autobiography All That Glitters: The Ava Cherry Story.

Early life Cherry was born in 1953 to an African-American family in Woodlawn, a working-class neighbourhood on the south side of Chicago. Her father was a postal worker and trumpet player who worked long hours, "from four o'clock in the morning [until] nine o'clock at night", and she rarely saw him; her mother worked in the administration department for Playboy Enterprises. Both parents' careers left deep imprints on her; she was raised to appreciate music by her father and lived for a period in the Playboy Mansion as a bunny. Cherry was introduced to Hugh Hefner by her friends, and was underage at the time she lived in the mansion. She attended Academy of Our Lady High School and graduated in the early 1970s. As a teenager, she sang in a girl group influenced by the Supremes and was a regular attendee at the Regal Theater in Chicago, a venue frequently attended by black music fans.

Cherry first aspired to be a model after graduating high school, putting together a book of headshots and finding work with several agencies. She disliked her unusual last name, but was told by modelling agencies it was an asset to her career. Cherry later moved to New York City for her career, but it failed to prosper, and she found work as a cocktail waitress to pay the bills. At the time, Cherry was a waitress at the Genesis nightclub and a close friend of Stevie Wonder's then-girlfriend, who knew Bowie; when she invited Wonder to host an afterparty at Genesis, Bowie attended. When the two first met, he was attracted by her close-cropped blonde hair and asked if she was a singer, inviting her on the spot to sing backup on a planned tour of Japan. but ultimately became mutually jealous. Anticipating the Japan tour, Cherry quit her job and sold her apartment, only for the tour to be cancelled. Not to be dissuaded, she went to Europe to search for Bowie. The Astronettes received mixed reviews, with some describing it as "sketchwork" only valuable as a curiosity, while others admired it for a "new wave before the term existed" sensibility.

Cherry's major influence on Bowie was in Young Americans, his ninth studio album. The heavily soul-influenced work drew on Bowie's interest in black music, and the backing trio of Cherry, Robin Clark (wife of guitarist Carlos Alomar), and a then-unknown Luther Vandross impacted the album's sound. Cherry introduced him to the Apollo Theater, where he poached Alomar and Vandross from the house band; Bowie and Alomar would go on to write some of the album's most successful songs, while Vandross would break out as a celebrity in his own right. Cherry was later quoted as saying that it was her influence on and encouragement of Bowie that inspired him to perform black music in the first place.

The precise nature of Bowie and Cherry's relationship throughout this era is disputed; Tony Visconti recalled them as lacking any apparent romantic bond, and Bowie as mostly interested in having a managerial role over her career. Angie Bowie was unfamiliar with the extent of their relationship and reportedly almost jumped out of a window when she learned how close they were. The personal difficulty between Cherry and Angie Bowie required the former to keep a low profile in the latter's presence, even as Cherry and Bowie carried on a relationship in New York.

The early to mid-1970s was a chaotic period in Bowie's career, marked by increasing fame and drug abuse. When meeting Cherry's parents, he shocked them by taking out a vial of cocaine at the dinner table. Bowie's drug-based decline came as a particular shock to Cherry, as he did very few drugs when they first met. Their relationship was serious, with Bowie reportedly considering divorcing Angie Bowie to marry Cherry, Bowie and Defries had significant financial conflicts throughout the period, which culminated in the discovery that the singer had millions of dollars less than he believed; the stress of the financial shock caused him to spontaneously cut ties with multiple people, including Cherry, and drop her from the upcoming Isolar Tour. She said he wrote the songs "Golden Years" and "Stay" from Station to Station about her,

After the demise of her relationship with Bowie, Cherry joined progressive jazz supergroup GO. The group was a collaboration with Steve Winwood,

Solo career After GO, Cherry returned to Chicago to embark on a solo career. Her first solo album was Ripe!!!, released by RSO Records in 1980 and produced by Curtis Mayfield. Ripe!!! was originally intended to be produced by Gil Askey for Curtom Records, but he was uncomfortable with her work with Bowie. and "I Just Can't Shake This Feeling". The minor success of the album combined with Cherry's history was enough for her to sign a deal with Capitol Records shortly after. as were the two singles spawned off it, "Streetcar Named Desire" and "Love To Be Touched". Its lack of success was ascribed in part to racial stereotypes in the music industry; pop radio stations reportedly stopped playing the album after discovering Cherry was a black artist making 'white' music. Contemporary critical reception was positive, describing the album as "electric, heart-pumping funk" and drawing connections to Grace Jones and Debbie Harry.

Picture Me, Cherry's third studio album, was released in 1987. It was her most successful solo attempt, producing two Top 40 dance hit singles, but fell below the label's commercial expectations. Picture Me received mixed reviews, being described as "slick and sexy synth pop", but also as a lean album of overplayed "skimpy grooves".

Cherry would not release another solo record until the EP Spend the Night in 1997, which was most known for its cover of "Forget Me Nots" by Patrice Rushen. After Spend the Night, Cherry self-distributed a number of singles in the early 2010s. through which she released a cover of Bowie's "Let's Dance"

Backup singer Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Cherry also worked as a backup singer to R&B musician Luther Vandross. The pair had met many years earlier as backup singers to Bowie, and they built a close relationship, with Cherry referring to him as like a brother. The dresses Cherry wore on stage frequently cost more than his own outfits. Vandross' focus on Cherry and Lisa Fischer as a core part of his stage show caused problems for other backup singers, who were required to sink into the background and not outshine them, and treated harshly if they were thought to catch too much attention. Cherry's place in Vandross' stage show has been analyzed for its significance and the implications for Vandross, a flamboyant figure with extensive speculation about his private life and sexual orientation. In 2013 she appeared in 20 Feet from Stardom, a documentary about backup singers. Spend the Night (1997, J-Bird Records) The Astronettes Sessions as The Astronettes (2008, Black Barbarella Records)