From 1978 to 1986, the R&B ensemble Mtume issued a series of recordings on Epic that placed them among the era’s most successful acts, guided throughout by James Mtume and anchored by Tawatha Agee’s commanding lead vocals. Prior to forming the group, James Mtume had already established himself as a premier jazz percussionist and composer, most notably through his association with Miles Davis between 1971 and 1975; during that same period he also released material under his single name, which gradually dissolved any clear boundary between his solo identity and the later band.
Together with guitarist and creative partner Reggie Lucas, he had already stepped away from jazz by co-authoring “The Closer I Get to You,” the luminous duet that carried Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway to the top of Billboard’s R&B chart in 1978. The initial roster also included keyboardist Hubert Eaves III, bassist Basil Fearington, and drummer Howard King, yet after the second album only James Mtume and Agee remained from the original configuration. Among those who exited were Eaves, who subsequently concentrated on production and work with D Train, and Lucas, whose next major achievement was helming the bulk of Madonna’s debut album.
Across five studio releases—Kiss This World Goodbye (1978), In Search of the Rainbow Seekers (1980), Juicy Fruit (1983), You, Me and He (1984), and Theater of the Mind (1986)—the band placed eleven singles on the charts while maintaining a deep catalog of album tracks. Its most prominent successes included “Give It on Up (If You Want To)” at number twenty-six R&B, the chart-topping “Juicy Fruit,” “You, Me and He” which reached number two, and “Breathless” at number nine. These singles documented a gradual shift from expansive, celebratory funk comparable to Earth, Wind & Fire or the Brothers Johnson toward a more streamlined, introspective machine soul. James Mtume later described the overall approach as “sophisti-funk,” a description that equally applied to the Grammy-winning songwriting and production he and Lucas supplied during the same years for Phyllis Hyman, Stephanie Mills, the Spinners, and Lou Rawls.
Long after the group disbanded, its catalog continued to attract new listeners, largely through the Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy” and the many other tracks that sampled or referenced Mtume’s work. James Mtume passed away on January 9, 2022, at the age of seventy-six.
