Reggie Lucas (February 25, 1953 – May 19, 2018) – So You Wanna Be A Star (1980)
This superb disco-funk jam by Lucas' band Mtume was written about Miles Davis and his future wife Cicely Tyson, with vocals by Gwen Guthrie and Luther Vandross.
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Reggie Lucas was a supremely talented guitarist, songwriter and producer who joined Miles Davis’ band in the early 70s when he was only nineteen years old.
He went on to form a musical partnership with bandmate James Mtume and together they co-wrote and/or produced classic hits for Roberta Flack, Phyllis Hyman, and Stephanie Mills, as well as their own band Mtume.
Born in Queens, New York, Reginald Grant Lucas was admitted to the selective Bronx High School of Science but dropped out to pursue a full-time career in music. He first played with Billy Paul before joining up with Miles Davis in 1972. “It was real simple,” Lucas told The Fader in an interview. “Miles said, ‘You wanna be in my band, motherfucker?’ And I immediately said yeah.”
Lucas played with Davis for the next four years, and during that time became close friends with his fellow bandmate, percussionist and keyboardist James Mtume. They both left Davis in 1976 to join Roberta Flack’s band.
Between tours, the two wrote a song for Flack, “The Closer I Get To You.” Although not originally written as a duet, it was re-written to include Donny Hathaway, who had recorded an album of duets with her in 1972. The track appeared on her Blue Lights in the Basement LP (1977), on which Lucas and Mtume played, and released as a single in early 1978. It went gold and charted at #1 R&B and #2 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming her biggest hit since “Killing Me Softly with His Song” (1973).
The song’s success allowed Mtume and Lucas to formalize their own songwriting and production partnership. They also got a major label deal on Epic Records for their own band Mtume, which had started as an Afrocentric jazz ensemble in the early 70s and put out two LP’s on small jazz labels.
Mtume’s debut album on Epic was Kiss This World Goodbye, released in 1978, which featured the beautiful jazz-funk jam “Love Lock.” The record was not commercially successful, with its sole single, the playful funk workout “Just Funnin” only managing to crack #93 on the R&B charts.
But they kept writing hits for other artists, including Phyllis Hyman’s 1979 classic “You Know How To Love Me,” which was a #6 disco smash and reached #12 R&B, although it did not cross over to the pop charts. In 1980, the duo scored a major hit with a song they wrote for Stephanie Mills. “Never Knew Love Like This Before” was inspired by the birth of Lucas and his wife Kay’s daughter Lisa. It went to #6 Pop and #12 R&B, and won two Grammys.
Their next album was In Search of the Rainbow Seekers, recorded in 1980 and released that July. It reached #30 on the R&B album charts, and had several highlights, including the phenomenal single “Give It on Up (If You Want To)” which made it to #26 R&B, and the upbeat cut “She's A Rainbow Dancer.”
The LP’s second single was the superb disco-funk jam “So You Wanna Be A Star.” It was co-written by Mtume, Lucas, and Mtume bassist Basil Fearrington, and like the rest of the album, co-produced by Mtume and Lucas. The song’s lyrics were partly about the challenges life in the spotlight posed for their former bandleader Miles Davis and his ex-girlfriend, the actor Cicely Tyson. They later rekindled their relationship and married in 1981.
Besides Lucas on guitar, Mtume on keyboards and percussion, and Fearrington on bass, "So You Wanna Be A Star" featured Tawatha Agee on vocals and percussion, Danny Coleman and Sinclair Acey on horns, Hubert Eaves III on additional keyboards, and Howard King on drums. Among the other (uncredited) vocalists were Gwen Guthrie and a still unknown Luther Vandross.
The track only made it to #60 R&B and #52 on the dance charts, but became a Larry Levan favorite at the Paradise Garage. An excellent extended edit was issued in 2018 by Danny Krivit, who along with his DJ partners François Kevorkian and Joe Claussell have kept the Garage’s legacy alive through their Body & Soul parties.
#disco #funk #Mtume #JamesMtume #ReggieLucas