James Mtume, Grammy Award-winning songwriter, dead at 76: ‘He will be dearly, eternally missed’

Rest In Power to the great James Mtume. The South Philly native & prodigal son, Jazz ROYALTY (the son of the great Jimmy Heath) and music trailblazer & pioneer. His passing is truly a monumental loss. Let’s look at some of Mtume’s music and legacy through the years, as a THREAD: pic.twitter.com/CQyJZLzwMs

— COSMO BAKER (@CosmoBaker) January 9, 2022

Legend: Mtume (seen in 1973) was born James Heath Jr. in Philadelphia as he is the son of jazz saxophonist Jimmy Heath as he was raised by mother Bertha Forman and pianist James ‘Hen Gates’ Forman who played in Charlie Parkers band

In the late 1960s he joined the US Organization which was the Black empowerment collective which created Kwanzaa. 

It was around this time where he changed his last name to Mtume which means ‘messenger’ in Swahili.

He took after his father and stepfather as he made his name as a jazz musician in the late Sixties and even toured with icon Miles Davis as a percussionist from 1971 to 1975.

Years later in 1978 he created his own R&B-jazz group called Mtume with Lucas in addition to  Tawatha Agee as they released five albums through 1986.

 Their most known hit was Juicy Fruit which remained on the Billboard R&B chart for 22 weeks when it was sampled for Notorious BIG’s hit Juicy in 1994.

In 1986 he composed the music for James Baldwin’s film Native Son.

He also had a successful songwriting career as he and Lucas co-write Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s The Closer I Get To You.

Mtume was also credited on songs by Mary J. Blige, R. Kelly, and K-Ci and Jo-Jo.