INTO THE MIND OF JAMES MTUME

Two out takes from Finding the Funk provide a favor of a departed mentor

When I shot the music documentary Finding the Funk for VH1 over a decade ago, a lot of great material never made it into the film. It was with deep regret that the wisdom of the late James Mtume was only in the film in bits and pieces. As I’ve been going through unedited clips from the doc, I am very keen to give folks a small slice of a man who revolved from political activist to sideman with Miles Davis to Grammy award winning producer/songwriter to TV show composer to the creator of an enduring hip hop sample (“Juicy Fruit”) to radio broadcaster. All the while Mtume was a mentor to scores of people, including yours truly.

The most important insights he offered me came in the period of 1987 and ’88 when I was struggling to organize the ideas I had for a book I was calling ‘The Death of Rhythm & Blues.’ I’d been working on the themes of that book throughout the ‘80s – how corporate control of black music had changed the creative process, how the traditional support systems for that musical culture (clubs, radio, retail) were dying, and much more. I’d call Mtume, Brooklyn to Jersey, tossing concepts around, relating the practical to the theoretical.

One night he suggested I read Harold Cruse’s ‘The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual,’ a biting critique of major figures in 20^th century African-American life. How Cruse organized his argument proved crucial in helping me wrangle my material. I wasn’t just a book recommendation but a way of analyzing the world that impacts me to this day. In essence Mtume, like a lot of true mentors, helped me to think more deeply which, in an era of misinformation, has proven been an enduring gift. So these two clips I recently posted on You Tube give a taste of his way of speaking and seeing. These were out takes shot by me with the B camera. The second clip in particular has a soft image. But the man’s words are so smart and funny, I hope you’ll forgive my shaky focus and listen to his flow.