Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis
Personal Information
Jimmy Jam (born James Harris III, June 6, 1959, Minneapolis, MN); married; one child. Terry Lewis (born November 24, 1956, Omaha, NE), Married Karyn Lewis (a singer), 1991; three children.
Career
Met in Minneapolis, mid-1970s; performing and recording artists for band Flyte Tyme (later The Time), mid-1970s-1983; formalized songwriting partnership, 1981; formed production company Flyte Tyme Productions, 1982; produced and/or composed for other acts, including S.O.S. Band, Klymaxx, Janet Jackson, Human League, Robert Palmer, Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson, Boyz II Men, Barry White, Gladys Knight, Karyn White, others 1982--; formed Perspective Records in partnership with A&M Records, 1991; produced recordings by Perspective artists Sounds of Blackness, Mint Condition, Lo-Key, Raja-Nee, Ann Nesby, and others, 1991--.
Life's Work
The production team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis helped reshape the landscape of black music--and, by extension, of popular music-- during the 1980s and 1990s with recordings by artists as diverse as pop diva Janet Jackson, gospel choir the Sounds of Blackness, close-harmony group BoyzIIMen, and R&B veterans Gladys Knight, Barry White, and Patti LaBelle. They achieved further success with their record label, Perspective, as well as hit film soundtracks and a song for the 1996 Olympic Games. Despite having earned countless hit records and scores of awards, the pair's bottom line has always remained the same: their friendship is the basis for their creative partnership, and their love of music overrules all other considerations.
The pair met in high school in Minneapolis. Jam--whose given name was James Harris III--earned his nickname as a local DJ, though he also jammed on keyboards. Lewis, meanwhile, had designs on a career in professional football. He had a pretty good chance, earning a scholarship to Notre Dame University, but an injury prevented him from pursuing his athletic dream. He therefore fell back on music, playing bass in a band called Flyte Tyme, which he had co-founded. The group played the kind of adrenazlied funk that was in vogue in Minneapolis at the time, thanks to acts like Lewis' friend Prince. Jam was invited to join Flyte Tyme, and Prince became the group's manager. He ran a tight ship, replacing the band's vocalist, shortening its name to The Time, and demanding total commitment from the musicians. "We weren't going to get paid a lot of money," Jam recalled in Rolling Stone, "but we were going to learn."
Jam and Lewis appeared on two albums by The Time, but after formalizing their songwriting partnership in 1981 their interest in other projects grew. Writing and producing for the S.O.S. band, they found themselves trapped in Atlanta by inclement weather; as a result, they missed a Time show in San Antonio. As Jam told Uptown, this brought down the wrath of Prince upon them. "Prince didn't want to break the group up," he said, "but the snowstorm provided the excuse he needed to fire us two. He thought we were off seeing some girls. Then he saw our picture in Billboard or something with the SOS Band, and all that changed. Seems like it was OK to be off seeing girls, but not OK to be furthering your own career." After finishing their tour obligations with The Time--Prince's opening act--the pair left the group.
Their earliest songwriting job netted them $1,500 for one tune, reported the Los Angeles Times. Though at first the two regarded such enterprise as a diversion, they soon came to understand that it could be the basis of a lucrative career. More and more work followed, and by 1984 they had reclaimed the name Flyte Tyme--for their production company, which boasted its own studio. The first Jam and Lewis milestone came when they produced Control, the turning-point album by Janet Jackson. Known until that time as a TV actress and Michael Jackson's sweet-faced kid sister, Janet put herself entirely in the hands of her producers, who shaped her project with the utmost care. The result was a record with enough edge to establish her as a credible R&B artist, but with enough pop smarts to take her into the mainstream. "All we ever try to do is bring out the personality," Jam told Elle. "Janet was like a stick of dynamite. We lit the fuse." Control scored a string of crossover hits and multiplatinum sales; it firmly established Jackson in the pop firmament.
The album also made Jam and Lewis into major players on the pop scene, even before they landed a Grammy Award as producers of the year. Though they had generated a buzz for several years, they now began to call the shots in their career; soon they were writing and producing hits for a flock of young artists, including Force M.D.'s, Robert Palmer, Alexander O'Neal, New Edition, and many others. Their work on Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 album consolidated her superstar status.
David Browne of Entertainment Weekly observed that Jam and Lewis helped shape the pop sound of the late 1980s. "With its rigid Robo- drummer beats and homogenized blend of computers and vocal harmonies," he wrote, the sound of Jackson's first recordings with the duo "was shocking in its airtight quality." This highly processed, energetic sound would mellow in time as Jam and Lewis-- ever alert to the prevailing commercial winds--moved with the times. "You've got to remember," Lewis reflected in INC., "without the business there's no music." And by the time this article appeared in 1990, the business was well in hand; the magazine remarked admiringly of the pair's "state-of-the-art" earnings.
Yet money, by most accounts, has had little impact on the pair's deep friendship and harmonious working relationship. "We share the same value system as [other] human beings--respect one another, respect other people," Lewis told the Los Angeles Times. "They listen to each other and talk about everything, and they come to conclusions together," the pair's assistant Susan Owens added. "They truly love each other." Lewis, who married singer Karyn Lewis, told the paper that he would have married Jam if his partner were a woman. "It's not a common relationship," he added. "It's not built on greed but built on trust; everything is 50-50." This point was underscored by their insistence on sharing credit for all their achievements; Jam would not accept a Keyboard magazine award until Lewis' name was put on the plaque.
Jam and Lewis based their production philosophy not on what artists were hot, but on what could be achieved by a collaboration. "We've been offered people who've sold millions of records," Lewis insisted in Elle, but they have refused to work with artists unless they "can bring something to the party." The year 1991 saw the founding of their label Perspective, in conjunction with A&M Records. The first release on the label invited some skepticism: The Evolution of Gospel by the choir Sounds of Blackness. Yet the album became a smash and won a slew of awards, including a Grammy. Similar success met with the next Perspective release, Mint Condition's Meant to be Mint. Jam and Lewis achieved another triumph with the soundtrack to the film comedy Mo' Money. The powerhouse collection--a multiplatinum smash--boasts tracks by Color Me Badd, Caron Wheeler, and Public Enemy and a Janet Jackson- Luther Vandross duet, among others. According to Musician reviewer James Hunter, the soundtrack allowed the pair to "summarize, as per their famous command of mainstream black pop, the current state of the art."
Jam and Lewis oversaw Janet Jackson's image-shifting janet., and were even permitted by her new label, Virgin, to release a Jackson single on Perspective. janet. presented the singer in a far more adult light, emphasizing her erotic maturation. Jam described the recording to Jet as "suggestive, but not explicit" and "a more mature album musically." He added that he and Lewis "like to think of ourselves as tailors. We look at each artist individually and try to make him or her a suit that's made especially for the artist." The suit they cut for Jackson--which, in its celebration of sex, was closer to a birthday suit than any of her previous work--was another smash.
The team paused briefly during this time to look back on a decade's work. "It's been 10 wonderful years," Lewis declared in Jet. "It's work if you look at it as a job, but music has always been a hobby with us. We were doing it before we got paid, and we'd probably be doing it if we weren't getting paid." Megastar Michael Jackson took a page from his sister's book and hired the team to write and produce material for his HIStory project. Jam took the opportunity to defend the scandal-plagued Michael in Entertainment Weekly. "He's the biggest prize in the [cultural] jungle," Jam explained, "and the media's on this mission to capture him." He added that both Jacksons have "an ability to elevate the work of everyone around them--through hard work, sheer talent, and a desire not to be second-best."
Jam and Lewis, meanwhile, had themselves moved into the front rank of pop music, penning and producing hits for established acts--such as BoyzIIMen--but also discovering new talent. Among the performers developed under the Perspective banner were hip-hoppers Tanya Von, Mr. Blaq, and Young Zee, and such R&B vocalists as Solo and Sounds of Blackness singer Ann Nesby. Musician summed up the Jam-Lewis appeal in its review of The Night Before Christmas~A Musical Fantasy by the Sounds of Blackness. The magazine dubbed the seasonal hit "another masterful example of how these artist/producers can include everything but the kitchen sink-- church choruses, pop leads, street beats and glistening samples-- and still sound rich instead of overextended, engaged instead of plotted." Meanwhile the soundtracks Jam and Lewis assembled for such films as The Money Train and Kazaam frequently outclassed the features themselves, filled as they were with top-flight talent and hit material while avoiding the "scattershot" quality of most anthology albums.
An industry colleague speculated in the Los Angeles Times about the reasons behind their success: "They're well-rounded musically as far as the genres they can dip into," he said. "They're not dominated by their rhythmic or their chordal approach. They're equal in all areas." He added that the Jam-Lewis "production technique is probably the finest in the business. There are no holes in their armor."
The pair's acumen has extended beyond their skills in the studio; they have shown similar foresight as businessmen. "What sets these two apart form other creative musicians," marveled INC. magazine, "is that they've channeled this talent through a company that they control and manage. And, boy, do they manage--costs, for instance." By setting up their production facilities in the small Minnesota town of Edina--rather than Los Angeles or New York--they saved a great deal of money; their involvement on the development side, meanwhile, guaranteed that they would earn more than a mere percentage for their creative work. As Lewis emphasized to the Los Angeles Times, "Without a healthy business practice, there is no room for creativity, because creativity is dwarfed because you're so worried about how to pay the bills."
Jam, meanwhile, admitted that at times he has encountered racism in Edina--particularly from the police, who have stopped him numerous times in his various expensive vehicles--but remained philosophical. "It's unfortunately part of society," he reflected. "Overall, I think this is a beautiful state and a nice city. I've been here all my life. I like it 99 percent of the time. You can't waste too much energy on the 1 percent."
The duo also devoted some effort to improving the conditions that gave rise to racism and inequality, chairing an innovative program called the "Literacy Lyric Project." Co-sponsored by the performance-rights organization ASCAP and the International Association of African American Music, the venture included motivational workshops at inner-city schools stressing reading and other learning skills. The first such workshop took place at North Community High in Minneapolis, which Jam and Lewis attended. "What better way to drive home the importance of reading to our children than through the exceptional talents of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis," proclaimed ASCAP head Marilyn Bergman--as quoted in the organization's journal PlayBack. "Their music has given us a new vocabulary, whose notes speak a universal language of art which can inspire and empower our children."
Jam and Lewis sought to inspire an even larger audience by contributing a song, "Atlanta's Welcome to the World," for the 1996 Olympic Games. And they continued to rack up awards and honors. Yet it remained clear that the hit production team's philosophy had scarcely wavered since the early years. "We never do something for money," Lewis told the Los Angeles Times. "We do it because creatively we feel we can contribute."
Awards
American Music Award for best R&B single, 1986, for Janet Jackson's "Nasty;" Grammy Award for producers of the year, 1986; ASCAP Songwriters of the Year awards and R&B Writers of the Year Awards, 1987-93, 1995, ASCAP Golden Note Award, 1993, and Song of the Year award, 1996; NAACP Heritage Award for Lifetime Achievement; T.J. Martell Humanitarian Award, 1996; numerous gold and platinum records.
Works
Selective Discography
- Selected discography (as producers) The Time, The Time, Warner Bros., 1981.
- The Time, What Time Is It?, Warner Bros., 1982.
- Klymaxx, Girls Will Be Girls, Solar, 1982.
- S.O.S. Band, On the Rise, Tabu/Epic, 1983.
- Change, Change of Heart, RFC/Atlantic, 1984.
- Thelma Houston, Qualifying Heat, MCA, 1984.
- Cherelle, Fragile, Tabu/Epic, 1984.
- Cherelle, High Priority, Tabu/Epic, 1985.
- Alexander O'Neal, Alexander O'Neal, Tabu/Epic, 1985.
- Force M.D.'s, "Tender Love," Warner Bros., 1985.
- Human League, Crash, A&M, 1986.
- Robert Palmer, Riptide, Island, 1986.
- Janet Jackson, Control, A&M, 1986.
- S.O.S. Band, Sands of Time, Tabu/Epic, 1986.
- O'Neal, Hearsay, Tabu/Epic, 1987.
- Herb Alpert, Keep Your Eyes on Me, A&M, 1987.
- Cherelle, Affair, Tabu/Epic, 1988.
- New Edition, Heart Break, MCA, 1988.
- O'Neal, All Mixed Up, Tabu/Epic, 1989.
- Janet Jackson, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814, A&M, 1989.
- O'Neal, All True Man, Tabu/Epic, 1991.
- Karyn White, Ritual of Love, Warner Bros., 1991.
- Sounds of Blackness, The Evolution of Gospel, Perspective, 1991.
- Mint Condition, Meant to be Mint, Perspective/A&M, 1991.
- Various, Mo' Money film soundtrack, Perspective/A&M, 1992.
- Sounds of Blackness, The Night Before Christmas~A Musical Fantasy, Perspective, 1992.
- Janet Jackson, janet., Virgin, 1993.
- Color Me Badd, Time and Chance, Giant, 1993.
- Johnny Gill, Provocative, Motown, 1993.
- Lisa Keith, Walkin' in the Sun, Perspective, 1993.
- O'Neal, Love Makes No Sense, Tabu, 1993.
- Ralph Tresvant, It's Goin' Down, MCA, 1993.
- Boyz II Men, II, Motown, 1994.
- Gladys Knight, Just for You, MCA, 1994.
- Patti Labelle, Gems, MCA, 1994.
- Lo-Key, Back 2 Da Howse, Perspective, 1994.
- Chante Moore, A Love Supreme, MCA, 1994.
- Beverly Hills Cop III soundtrack, MCA, 1994.
- A Low Down Dirty Shame soundtrack, Jive, 1994.
- Raja-Nee, Hot and Ready, Perspective, 1994.
- Sounds of Blackness, Africa to America: The Journey of the Drum, Perspective, 1994.
- Barry White, The Icon is Love, A&M, 1994.
- Karyn White, Make Him Do Right, Warner Bros., 1994.
- Janet Jackson, Design of a Decade, 1986/1996, A&M, 1995.
- Michael Jackson, HIStory Continues, Past, Present and Future~Book 1, MJJ, 1995.
- Money Train soundtrack, 550, 1995.
- Lionel Richie, Louder than Words, Mercury, 1995.
- Ann Nesby, I'm Here for You, Perspective, 1996.
Further Reading
Sources
- ASCAP Playback, July 1995; January 1996.
- Billboard, June 29, 1996.
- Elle, March 1993.
- Entertainment Weekly, June 23, 1995; October 6, 1995.
- Inc., January 1990.
- Jet, May 24, 1993.
- Los Angeles Times, June 28, 1992; June 22, 1996.
- Musician, September 1992; January, 1993.
- Uptown, April 1992.
- Additional information was provided by the Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis homepage on the World Wide Web.
— Simon Glickman
