In 1968, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Arthur (Lorenzo) Carnegie/saxes/flutes,

Read More...

vocals, Jake Riley/trombone/vocals, Carle (Wayne) Vickers/trumpet/flute/saxes,

vocals, and Abraham (Onion) Miller/saxes/vocals, who had been working as

members of the (15 piece) "Fantastic Soul Men Orchestra" backing the ever

popular duo of "Sam & Dave", along with Jimmy (JD) Davis/MD/keys/vocals,

formed their own band named "Love Men ltd". Then they drove to New City, in a

car that they purchased together (a 1956 Chevy), and lived in Spanish Harlem

on 49th and Broadway, where Toby Wynn/saxes/vocals, joined them. While

performing up and down the eastern seaboard as "Love Men ltd" on a gig in

Providence, Rhode Island, Jeffrey Osborne/drums/vocals got with them.

After two years in New York, they drove two cars and a trailer to Los Angeles,

California, where Jeff's brother Billy Osborne/drums/keys/vocals, Celeste Cole,

Jeff's and Billy's home girl/keys/vocals, Henry E. Davis/bass/flute/keys/vocals,

Johnny McGhee/guitar, and Robert Santienl/congas, joined them.

1974 found them signing with A & M records as LTD, Love Togetherness &

Devotion, and it wasn't long before Los Angeles, as well as the rest of the

country, took the band to heart. Jeffrey was moved out front as the lead

vocalist, and Alvino Bennett replaced him on drums. The group then went on to

produce great songs such as "Love Ballad", "Back In Love Again",

"Concentrate On You", "Holding On", and many others. These songs showed

the band to have the right combination of well polished soul, funk, and love

songs that were perfect for all their audiences. LTD continued to record into

the 80's and in 1980 released "Shine On", which netted them another Top 40

hit. Soon after that Jeffrey and Billy Osborne departed to start their solo

careers. Andre Ray and Leslie Wilson were then chosen as lead vocalists on

their next album "Love Magic" which gave the world two more great hits, "April

Love", Andre Ray/lead vocals, and "Kicking Back", Leslie Wilson/lead vocals.

Leslie Wilson left to continue his solo career and LTD stayed busy in the music

industry by recording for small independent record labels, and doing their own

personal music projects.

In 1999, a LTD copycat band lost a federal court battle, with the current 6

original members of LTD retaining the righs, and ownership of the name LTD.

The 6 current original members, Henry Davis,

director/bass/keys/guitar/flute/lead/bg vocals, Jimmy (JD) Davis/MD/keys,vocals,

Arthur (Lorenzo) Carnegie/saxes/flute/guitar/vocals, Carle (Wayne) Vickers,

trumpet/flute/saxes/vocals, and Billy Osborne/drums/keys/lead/bg vocals,

Johnny McGhee/guitar/vocals, along with new members, Andre

Ray/keys/lead/bg vocals, Richard Moorings, keys,

lead/bg vocals/trombone, and Tefere Hazy/drums/vocals, have been touring

since 1999.

Sadly, in 2008 Jimmy Davis passed away.

User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License and may also be available under the GNU FDL.