Remembering James Mtume (3 Jan 1946 - 9 Jan 2022)

Having just celebrated his 76th birthday on 3 Jan 2022, James Mtume died the following week a year ago today on 9 Jan 2022. Most will probably associate with his 1983 hit "Juicy Fruit" as part of the group Mtume which included Reggie Lucas, Philip Field and vocalist Tawatha Agee. 

However his musical journey started many years prior to that at college in the late 60s with Kwanzaa and then as a member of Miles Davis' group as percussionist (1971-75). He performed with a number of other groups such as Kochi, Mtume Umoja Ensemble, The Heath Brothers (his father was jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath and this group was his father's and uncles' Percy & Albert 'Tootie' Heath) and The Players Association and formed Mtume in 1977.

He was born James Heath Jr. in Philadelphia in 1946 and later changed it to Forman after his step father who was another jazz musician (pianist) James 'Hen Gates' Forman who played in Charlie Parker's group. At ten years old he was rubbing shoulders with jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Sonny Rollins! He later played alongside Sonny Rollins, Herbie Hancock, Pharoah Sanders, McCoy Tyner, Lonnie Liston Smith, Gato Barbieri, Ramsey Lewis. Whilst at college in the late 60s he joined a black empowerment collective known as Kwanzaa which is when he changed is name to Mtume (meaning 'messenger' in Swahili).

He met guitarist Reggie Lucas when they were both members of Miles Davis' group (Davis' group members at this time also included Michael Henderson, Lonnie Liston Smith and Al "Night Of The Wolf" Foster amongst others) who he would have a long-term writing partnership with writing hit songs such as "Never Had A Love Like This Before", "What Cha Gonna Do With My Lovin'", "Two Hearts" (and many others) for Stephanie Mills, "The Closer I Get To You" (which Mtume recorded in 1978 on their debut album with Tawatha Agee) & "Back Together Again" (Roberta Flack & Donny Hathaway), "Say You Will" & "Prance On" (Eddie Henderson), "You Know How To Love Me" & "Under Your Spell" (Phyllis Hyman).

In the mid 80s he left contemporary music disillusioned with the attitude of record companies regarding using it as a means to make money rather than artistic merit.

Below is a playlist of some of his best recordings with Mtume and a selection of songs he co-wrote with Reggie Lucas (who died in 2018 aged 65). One or two they were producers only on i.e. Sunfire and Rena Scott (written by Tawatha Agee although they wrote several others on the same album and produced it).

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