{"id":2909,"date":"2022-01-10T20:54:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-11T01:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/?p=2909"},"modified":"2022-01-11T00:49:37","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T05:49:37","slug":"transitions-james-mtume-multi-genre-artist-musician-songwriter-dead-at-76","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rhythmnation.online\/index.php\/2022\/01\/10\/transitions-james-mtume-multi-genre-artist-musician-songwriter-dead-at-76\/","title":{"rendered":"TRANSITIONS | James Mtume, Multi-Genre Artist, Musician, Songwriter – Dead at 76"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Percussionist James Mtume, the beat behind Miles Davis and later ‘Juicy, has reportedly died, his death was confirmed by his publicist, Angelo Ellerbee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An NPR article noted that Mtume recorded with pianist and future NEA Jazz Master McCoy Tyner in 1970, but his big break came the following year, when he started playing congas with Davis’s electric group. Filling the void left by Airto Moreira, Mtume stayed on for four years, appearing on landmark LPs like 1972’s On the Corner<\/em> and 1974’s Big Fun<\/em>. “Ife,” from that latter album, had a title near to Mtume’s heart \u2014 it was the name of his daughter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The esteemed Miles Davis noted Mtume’s impact on the heartbeat of his band in a 1989 autobiography where he stated… “With Mtume, Heath and Pete Cosey joining us, most of the European sensibilities were gone from the band. Now the band settled down into a deep African thing, a deep African-American groove, with a lot of emphasis on drums and rhythm, and not on individual solos.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Three years after his departure from Davis, in 1978, Mtume traded the zig-zag sensibilities of “electric Miles” for the less zig and more zag of funk, and launched his group known simply as Mtume. But on its third album, 1983’s\u00a0Juicy Fruit<\/em>, the band channeled something deeper. Featuring an outfront, icy, snaking bass and a hypnotic line from a Drum machine, Mtume offered the flirty, laidback, sultry title track that carved itself into music history, grabbing the No. 1 spot on the\u00a0Billboard<\/em>\u00a0R&B chart and placing Mtume’s as a producer and artist into the spotlight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n