Mtume

Once asked what he learned from his years in Miles Davis’ trailblazing mid-’70s band, James Mtume said that you couldn’t be afraid to change—or, at least, if you were, you were gonna find yourself stuck, fast. Mtume, who died on January 9, 2022, founded his eponymous band in the ’70s, blending post-bop and spiritual jazz with a sense of pan-African identity that represented a vanguard in Black American culture. (He was among the participants at the first Kwanzaa celebration in 1966.) As times changed, so did Mtume, cultivating a sound that bridged the harmonic sophistication of jazz with the soft minimalism of quiet storm and ’80s R&B—a style that helped define commercial hip-hop through the ’90s. (The group’s most famous song, “Juicy Fruit,” was the sample behind The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Juicy”—if you don’t know, now you know.) He left behind a wide-ranging legacy as a performer, bandleader, songwriter, and producer, threading Afrocentric jazz through ’80s club music and beyond.