James Mtume

James Mtume (* January 1947 in Philadelphia as James Forman is) an American musician ( percussionist , especially conga player , keyboardist , singer, songwriter, bandleader), music producer and radio host, the first in jazz - and then especially in the radio area has emerged .

Live and act

Mtume, son of jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath , grew up in the city of his birth and moved to New York City in early 1970 , where he worked with Herbie Hancock , Tootie Heath ( Kawaida ), Buddy Terry, Joe Henderson and Freddie Hubbard before joining between 1971 and 1975 Member of the band of Miles Davis became. He also led his own band, which also experimented with mixed forms between free jazz and poetry. As a session musician, he was also involved in the recordings of Gato Barbieri , Eddie Henderson , McCoy Tyner , Lonnie Liston Smith , James Spaulding and Sonny Rollins in the 1970s . He also performed with The Heath Brothers , his father and uncles. He also worked for Roberta Flack and wrote the hit I Never Knew Love Like this Before for Stephanie Mills with guitarist Reggie Lucas, with whom he worked from 1974 .

His band Mtume , founded in the late 1970s, had a top five R&B hit with the single You, Me, and He and was active until the mid-1980s. She is best known today for her song Juicy Fruit , which was sampled by The Notorious BIG and used in Juicy , but also for Jennifer Lopez 's song Loving You and Warren Gs Do You See ; furthermore the song was sampled by Wreckx-N-Effect .

He has also made recordings for Lou Rawls , Hugh Masekela and Roy Ayers and worked with the Players Association . He had his own radio show on the New York station WRKS (98.7 KISS FM). In 1997 he produced the albums Share My World and K-Ci and Jo-Jo's Love Always for Mary J. Blige . He also worked with Black Renaissance (2002).

Discographic notes

• Mtume Umoja Ensemble: Alkebu-Lan - Land of the Blacks ( Strata East Records 1972, with Gary Bartz , Carlos Garnett , Leroy Jenkins , Stanley Cowell , Buster Williams , Billy Hart , Ndugu )
• Miles Davis: Dark Magus , Get Up with It (1974)
• Rebirth Cycle (Third Street Records 1974, with a.o. John Stubblefield , Azar Lawrence , Jimmy Heath, Leroy Jenkins, Stanley Cowell, Reggie Lucas, Buster Williams, Cecil McBee , Al Foster , Dee Dee Bridgewater , Jean Carn)
• In Search of the Rainbow Seekers ( Epic Records 1980)
• Juicy Fruit (Epic 1983)
• You Me and He (CBS 1984)
• Theater of the Mind (CBS 1986)

Web links

• Short portrait with links to further representations
• James Mtume at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jimmy Heath: I Walked with Giants: The Autobiography of Jimmy Heath. Temple University Press, Philadelphia 2010, ISBN 978-1-4399-0198-4 , p. 303.