LaMonte McLemore—photographer and co-founding vocalist of the psychedelic soul group The 5th Dimension—passed away from natural causes at his home near Las Vegas on Tuesday. He was 90 years old. Most celebrated for their Grammy-winning, number one 1969 smash “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In (The Flesh Failures),” The 5th Dimension scored six platinum singles and seven platinum albums throughout their career, including The Age of Aquarius.
As a freelance photographer, McLemore also shot over 500 African-American women for JET magazine (among other work for Playboy, EBONY and elsewhere), as evidenced in last year’s Black Is Beautiful: JET Beauties of the Week. In a joint statement released this week, surviving 5th Dimension members Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. said, “All of us who knew and loved him will definitely miss his energy and wonderful sense of humor.”
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1935, Herman Lamonte McLemore explored several different life paths as a young adult. Enlisting in the U.S. Navy in 1952, he trained as an aerial photographer. Upon his return, he channeled his athleticism and love for baseball into a tryout with the St. Louis Cardinals (the first African-American ever to do so) and soon landed a spot with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a minor league strong-arm pitcher.
By 1958, McLemore co-founded (with Cliff Hall) Halmont Graphics, a hub for commercial and celebrity photography where he launched his professional camerawork career. Making his mark in an era of celebrated Black photographers like Gordon Parks and Kwame Brathwaite, McLemore shot 14-year-old Stevie Wonder for the cover of his fourth studio album, Stevie at the Beach, as well as assignments from People and fashion magazine Harper’s Bazaar (the first Black photographer to be hired there).
From enlisted sailor to athlete to shutterbug to singer, in 1963, McLemore connected with four other vocalists (including UCLA student-model Marilyn McCoo) to form a jazz-oriented vocal group christened The Hi-Fi’s. Before transitioning to The Vocals, the short-lived group toured as the opening act for soul pioneer Ray Charles. The Vocals reconfigured its lineup in ’65, becoming The Versatiles and then finally The 5th Dimension—made up of Lamonte McLemore, Marilyn McCoo, Ron Townson, Billy Davis Jr. and Florence LaRue (a modeling schoolteacher McLemore once photographed at a Miss Bronze beauty pageant).
The 5th Dimension charted top 10 pop hits, including “Up, Up and Away” (1967), “Stoned Soul Picnic” (1968) and “Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In” (1969), which featured prominently in the groundbreaking Broadway rock musical, Hair. All featured McLemore’s warm bass vocals. “When we first hit, we came out onto the pop charts,” Billy Davis Jr. shared in Questlove’s Oscar-winning documentary, Summer of Soul, which featured a 1969 performance by the 5th Dimension at what’s long been known as the Black Woodstock. “Everybody thought we were a white act, until they saw pictures of the group. Back then, music was segregated. Pop groups wasn’t playing Black music; Black groups wasn’t playing pop music. We were caught in the middle.”
According to cultural critic Danyel Smith in her musical history book Shine Bright, “By 1970, the 5th Dimension had won six Grammys, including two for Record of the Year. The 5th Dimension won basically every prestige Grammy—and no Grammys in the R&B or ‘Black’ categories… The quintet fairly leap from EBONY’s October 1967 cover, and the accompanying line is ‘The 5th Dimension: White Sound in a Black Group.’ ” Billy Davis Jr. admits, “They had problems categorizing us.” Nevertheless, by the time the 5th Dimension ended its original incarnation circa 1975, the group was responsible for a solid twenty Top 40 singles.
In addition to Black Is Beautiful: JET Beauties of the Week featuring his tasteful portraiture of African-American beauty, LaMonte McLemore released a 2014 memoir co-authored with Robert-Allan Arno entitled From Hobo Flats to the 5th Dimension: A Life Fulfilled in Baseball, Photography and Music. He is survived by his wife, Mieko McLemore, his daughter Ciara, son Darin, sister Joan and three grandchildren.
Former 5th Dimension singer Florence LaRue released the following in a statement earlier in the week: “[LaMonte McLemore’s] cheerfulness and laughter often brought strength and refreshment to me in difficult times. We were more like brother and sister than singing partners. I didn’t realize the depth of my love for LaMonte until he was no longer here. His absence has shown me the magnitude of what he meant to me and that love will stay in my heart forever.”