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James Mack was a composer, songwriter, producer and master arranger who helped create more than sixty albums by Chicago soul and jazz greats including Tyrone Davis, Jerry Butler, Nancy Wilson, and Ramsey Lewis.
Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Mack and his older brother were raised by their single mother who worked as a maid. When he was five, his family moved to the South Side of Chicago. At age seven, he heard classical music on the radio and found his calling. In high school he joined the band and became an accomplished flutist.
After getting a masters in music at Roosevelt University and studying musicology at the University of Chicago, Mack was hired to teach music at Crane Junior College (which today is Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago). His students there included future arranging legends Willie Henderson and Thomas (“Tom Tom 84”) Washington.
In 1968, Henderson got a job at the Chicago branch of New York City-based Brunswick Records, and later that year brought Mack onboard alongside him, both working with producer Carl Davis. Mack handled most of the arrangements for Brunswick star Tyrone Davis’ albums, and continued arranging for Tyrone after he was signed by Columbia in 1976. Along with Leo Graham, another of his former students, Mack co-arranged both Davis’ 1975 R&B chart-topper “Turning Point” and his phenomenal 1978 club hit “Get On Up (Disco)” which hit #12 R&B.
For Let's Be Closer Together (1977), Davis’ second album for Columbia, Mack and Graham co-wrote and arranged the LP’s beautiful title track and the equally gorgeous love song “I Just Can't Keep On Going.” The latter was later released as the title track to an album Davis put out in 1980.
Mack’s songwriting expanded when he began collaborating with Ramsey Lewis, and co-produced, wrote and arranged nearly everything on his 1978 LP Legacy. Highlights included the funky workout “Moogin’ On” (co-written with percussionist Fred Walker aka Derf Reklaw), the album’s 22 minute-long, four part jazz symphony title track, and its epic, disco-flavored jazz-funk closing cut “Don’t Look Back,” solely written and arranged by Mack and co-produced by himself and Lewis.
Even after his successes in the record industry, Mack kept teaching and spent more than 30 years as chairman of the music department at Harold Washington College. From 1974 until his death from a heart attack at age 76, he was also the music director at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago in Hyde Park.
Rest in Power, James Mack.
Further info:
“James L. Mack: 1929 – 2006,” Chicago Tribune, August 16, 2006.
#soul #funk #disco #Chicago #TyroneDavis #RamseyLewis #JamesMack
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