Producer Spotlight — Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis
Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis is one the most prolific songwriting and music producing duos in music history. They have worked with the who’s who in the music industry since the early eighties most notably in the R&B music genre.
Jam and Lewis met through an Upward Bound program while both were in high school in Minneapolis. They proceeded to form a band called Flyte Tyme that eventually turned into The Time. The group acquired a lead singer and became an opening act for Prince. The Time recorded three albums that spawned the hits such as “Cool”, “Get It Up”, “777-9311” and “Gigolos Get Lonely Too”.
Hear the song “777-9311” here.
In 1982, they met a music executive who was an employee of a record label that was home to numerous musical acts that were huge in the R&B genre at the time. They asked that same executive to manage them which led them to a relationship to another music executive. That music executive asked Jam and Lewis to produce the group, the SOS Band. That relationship lead to the creation of their production company, Flyte Tyme Productions and productions for other artists soon followed.
Take a listen here to SOS Band’s “Take Your Time (Do It Right).”
Unfortunately (or fortunately), Prince fired the duo because the pair missed a performance due to a snowstorm while they were producing music for the SOS Band. However, one of the group’s songs became a huge hit and (as they say) they never looked back. After producing more songs for different artists, they were introduced to Janet Jackson and began a long-standing musical relationship with her for over 25 years starting with producing her breakout album, Control. (There are so many of their productions with Janet that they are too long to mention.)
Watch the video to Janet Jackson’s “Control.”
They later founded their own record label, Perspective Records, in 1991 which included artists such as R&B group Mint Condition and the gospel group, the Sounds of Blackness. The label had a great run, but folded in 1999. In the 2000s, Jam and Lewis continued to work with artists from New Edition to Gwen Stefani to gospel artist Yolanda Adams. They reunited with their old group, The Time, at the Grammy Awards in 2008 to perform a medley of hits. (Jam and Lewis has won five Grammy Awards and two of them are for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical.) Speaking of the Grammy Awards, Jam served as the chairman of the board at the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences which is the organization that handles the Grammys. Now, he is the chairman Emeritus. They also opened a recording studio in the Los Angeles area in 2005 where they still continue to produce artists.