Monday, January 10, 2022

James Mtume, Jazz and R&B Legend, Dies at 76

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James Mtume, a legendary jazz musician and R&B artist whose hit 1983 single “Juicy Fruit” provided the
musical foundation for the Notorious B.I.G.'s 1994 rap classic “Juicy,” died Sunday at the age of 76.

No cause of death was given. Lisa Lucas, the daughter of Mtume’s deceased creative partner guitarist Reggie Lucas, was the first to share the news, which was confirmed by his publicist, Angelo Ellerbee.

"So much loss. So much grief. Rest in power to Uncle Mtume," she wrote on Twitter. "My late father’s partner in crime, the co-creator of the songs of my life (and about my birth!). He was essential part of the life of the man who made me, therefore me too. Gone now. He will be dearly, eternally missed."

The Philadelphia native, born James Heath, was a musical legacy. The son of jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath, he was raised by his stepfather, James Forman, a jazz pianist. In college he adopted the Swahili word for messenger as his stage name.

The percussionist's career had exploded by the 1970s, thanks in part to his collaborations with jazz legends Miles Davis and McCoy Tyner. From 1971-1975 he manned the drums on electronic jazz classics like “On the Corner” and “Pangea.”

A renaissance man Mtume, along with his musical partner Lucas, produced songs and albums for Stephanie Mills, Phyllis Hyman, Lou Rawls and The Spinners in the early 80s.

Their collaboration led to a string of hits including Mills’ Grammy-winning “Never Knew Love Like This Before” in 1981 and Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s 1978 million-selling hit “The Closer I Get to You.”

In 1978 he started leading his eponymous New York-based group Mtume. The group struck gold on its third album release with 1983’s “Juicy Fruit.” The funk-fueled, bass-heavy track earned the No. 1 stop on the Billboard R&B chart and began a legacy that would transcend the artist.

When Notorious B.I.G. sampled the song in his 1994 hit "Juicy,” it served as a powerful platform to propel the artist into eventual rap superstardom over one of the most famous bass and drum samples in history.

According to reporting from NPR, Mtume was flattered by his work being used as the basis for the track.

"Oh, I dug it," remembered Mtume about "Juicy." "They actually wanted me to be in [the music video]. I was asked and I said, 'No, you ain't doing that man. What? You want me to jump around the corner in some high shoes and plaid pants?' They fell out laughing. 'It's your generation, you all do what you do.' "

His work would go on to be sampled by a multitude of other hip-hop artists. Snoop Dogg, Lil Kim and Common are just a few of the luminaries who have sampled Mtume.

In addition to his significant contributions to jazz, besides Davis and Tyner, he contributed to recordings from many of the arts greatest legends including Duke Ellington and Dizzy Gillespie; Mtume co-produced Mary J. Blige’s 1997 hit album” Share My World.” He also served as a music supervisor for television’s “New York Undercover” and scored the 1986 film “Native Son.” An activist at heart, he also co-hosted a community talk series called “Open Line” on New York’s WBLS-FM for 18 years.

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Calvin Simon, Parliament-Funkadelic Co-Founder, Dead at 79

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Calvin Simon, a founding member of the psychedelic funk-collective of rotating musicians headed by George Clinton known as Parliament-Funkadelic, has died.

The news of Simon’s passing at age 79 Thursday, was broken by former bandmates Clinton and Bootsy
Collins, who both posted moving tributes to the vocalist on their social media Friday — and confirmed Saturday by a post on Simon's official Facebook page.

"[Thanks] everyone for the wonderful memories... we will so miss you Calvin... but love the thought that heaven just got a bit funkier," the post reads.

Simon, whose cause of death had not been reported at press time, drew high praise from Clinton and Collins, two of the most visible members of Parliament and musicians whose influence has reached far beyond funk.


"Rest in peace to my P-Funk brother Mr. Calvin Simon," Clinton wrote on Facebook. "Longtime Parliament-Funkadelic vocalist. Fly on Calvin!"

Collins added on Instagram, "We lost another Original member of Parliament/Funkadelic. A friend, bandmate & a cool classic guy, Mr. Calvin Simon was a former member of Parliament/Funkadelic. He's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted in 1997 with fifteen members of P-Funk!"


A West Virginia native, Simon was born in 1942 and as a youth sang in his church choir for weekly radio broadcasts. The family relocated to New Jersey when he was a teen, where he eventually found work as a barber before joining fellow barbers Clinton and Grady Thomas, and customers Ray Davis and Fuzzy Haskins in the doo-wop quintet originally known as the Parliaments.

The group scored a record contract and a hit single in 1967’s “(I Wanna) Testify," but that same year Simon was drafted to serve in the Vietnam War. After completing two years of service, he returned to the group which had morphed into the collective known as Parliament-Funkadelic, by combining two groups led by the charismatic Clinton.

The group scored massive hits with chart-toppers like “Flash Light” and "Give Up the Funk.” In 1997, Simon and the rest of the group were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame for their contributions to music, including 13 top-10 hits on the American R&B music charts between 1967 and 1983. The group received a lifetime achievement award from the Grammys in 2019.

Simon, who left the group in 1978, released several gospel albums on his own label, Simon Sayz, in the years following his departure. The first release, 2004’s “Share the News,” coincided with his diagnosis and battle with thyroid cancer. His last release was 2018’s “I Believe.”
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Friday, January 7, 2022

Sidney Poitier, trailblazer who broke barriers for Black actors, dies at 94

Sir Sidney Poitier, the trailblazing Bahamian-American actor, director, philanthropist and activist whose work helped reshape the way Hollywood portrayed Black men, has died at the age of 94.


The Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell, confirmed the news of Poitier's passing after local outlets broke the story. No cause of death was given.

Poitier’s best known career achievement came in 1964, when he became the first Black man to win a best actor Oscar for his depiction of an ex-serviceman who helps East German nuns build a chapel in “Lilies of the Field.”

His 71-year career was filled with awards and accolades — including a Grammy, two Golden Globe Awards and a British Academy Film Award — and defined by his refusal to accept roles that reduced Black men to the negative stereotypes that prevailed in much of film, even in the Civil Rights era.


Indeed, in 1967, considered to be the peak of his commercial career as an actor when he was one of Hollywood’s biggest draws, Poitier lent his powerful presence to three iconic films that addressed race relations in new and powerful ways. “To Sir With Love,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and “In the Heat of the Night,” showcased his versatility as an actor and presented some of the most compelling and nuanced studies of a Black man committed to celluloid at that point.

The son of tomato farmers and the youngest of seven children, Poitier was automatically granted US citizenship after being born several months premature in Miami while his parents were visiting in February 1927.
After spending his childhood in Bahamas, he moved to America when he was 15 to live with an older brother in Miami. After departing Florida for New York, he earned his first lead film role a year later in 1955’s “Blackboard Jungle.”

In addition to being a great actor, Poitier was a competent director. His biggest success behind the camera came in 1980 when he helmed the Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder comedy “Stir Crazy.” Other directing credits for Poitier include: “Porgy and Bess” (1959), “Paris Blues” (1961), “A Patch of Blue” (1965), “Sneakers” (1992) and “The Jackal” (1997).

In 1997 he was named ambassador to Japan by the Bahamas, a position which he held until 2007.

Poitier is survived by six children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He married his first wife, Juanita Hardy, in 1950. They had four daughters before divorcing in 1965. He married his second wife, Canadian actor Joanna Shimkus, in 1976 and spent the rest of his life with her. They had two daughters.


Last January, Arizona State University announced The New American Film School in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts would be named in his honor.
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