Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Perform at
Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Presented by Citizens
at Highmark Stadium on Saturday, September 16, 8:45 pm
Guest Vocalists Include Cherrelle, Ann Nesby, Mary Davis,
Kevin Ford and Crystal Kay
PITTSBURGH, PA, August 30, 2023 – Five-time Grammy-winning Minneapolis producers/songwriters, keyboardist James Samuel Harris, III, aka Jimmy Jam, and bassist Terry Lewis are one of the most successful and influential producer/songwriter teams of all time. They put Janet Jackson in “Control,” and made her and her brother Michael “Scream,” told the SOS Band to “Take Your Time, Do it Right,” and gave Cheryl Lynn her well-deserved “Encore.” Now, this dynamic duo, along with some special friends, will perform a very rare live set at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Presented by Citizens (PIJF) on Saturday, September 16, 8:45 pm, at Highmark Stadium.
Joining Jam and Lewis onstage will be several of the lead vocalists from many of the producers’ hit songs. They include the Los Angeles-born chanteuse Cherrelle, whose sweet and sassy vocals made hits of “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On,” and “Saturday Love” (with Alexander O’Neal); Ann Nesby, the gospel-grooved singer who took The Sounds of Blackness to the top of the charts with their anthemic single “Optimistic;” and Atlanta’s Mary Davis, the down-home diva, whose Southern Belle sound made “Take Your Time (Do It Right)” into an R&B classic. Other Jam/Lewis-produced vocalists performing include Chicago vocalist/composer Kevin Ford, aka K-Luva, whose 1998 album K-Luva Jams was produced by the duo, and the African-American/Korean/Japanese singer/songwriter/radio host Crystal Kay, who will be singing Janet Jackson’s hits, such as “Control,” “Nasty” and “What Have ‘You Done For Me Lately.”
The set list of Jam and Lewis can draw from many of their aforementioned tunes, as well as their hits by their former group, The Time. And, don’t forget their 2021 debut CD, Jam & Lewis Vol. 1, featuring Nesby, Babyface, Mariah Carey, The Roots, Usher, Charlie Wilson, Heather Headley, Mary J. Blige, Morris Day and Jerome Benton.
Their numbers speak for themselves: 16 #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, 26 #1 R&B singles and over 100 gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond albums. The sonic source of Jam’s and Lewis’ success is the Minneapolis Sound: a synth-driven blend of rock, R&B and funk they co-created with Prince, Andre Cymone and Morris Day. That sound catapulted Janet Jackson to stardom, and the duo also worked with a wide spectrum of artists from Patti Labelle, The Sounds of Blackness, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, George Michael, The Human League and Earth, Wind and Fire, to name a very select few.
The origins of the Minneapolis Sound spring from Jam’s and Lewis’ childhood growing up in that city in the late sixties and seventies. They met in a junior high school Upward Bound program, initially played in rival bands that included a musical prodigy named Prince. Jam and Lewis eventually joined forces in a group called Flyte Tyme, which included Morris Day on drums. When Prince signed with Warner Brothers and launched his career, he recruited Jam and Lewis and created and produced the funk band, The Time, whose hits included “Jungle Love,” “The Bird” and “7779311.”
Against Prince’s wishes, Jam and Lewis started working as producers. In March of 1983, they were in Atlanta working with The SOS Band when a rare blizzard grounded the duo, made them miss a gig with The Time in San Antonio, and were fired by Prince. “… [He] freed us to pursue our destiny,” says Lewis in an interview with Classicpopmag.com. “The fact we ended up working, getting in a snowstorm and getting fired for it was apropos – because it was bound to happen. So, at that point, Prince freed us, the same night we were mixing The SOS Band’s “Just Be Good to Me.” Without missing a beat, Jam and Lewis finished producing The SOS Band, who were signed to the late legendary music executive’s Clarence Avant’s Tabu label.
But, it was with Janet Jackson that Jam and Lewis found their greatest success as producers. They transformed her image as a shy performer into a powerhouse entertainer with mega hit albums including “Control,” “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814,” “Janet,” “The Velvet Rope,” All For You,” “Damita Jo” “20 Y.O.,” “Discipline” and “Unbreakable.”
In addition to working with the aforementioned artists, some of the compositions Jam and Lewis wrote were covered by jazz artists. The Pollyseeds, featuring pianist Robert Glasper and keyboardist/saxophonist Terrace Martin, and bassist Stanley Clarke, recorded their versions of Janet Jackson’s ballad “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun),” drummer/composer Joe Chambers arranged a Latin-tinged take of Jackson’s “Come Back to Me” and a swinging rendition of another Jackson ballad “Let’s Wait Awhile” was rendered by tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland and vocalist/keyboardist Christie Dashiell. On another jazzy note, their band Flyte Tyme took its name from “Flight Time,” a Donald Byrd song.
Along with their Grammys, Jam’s and Lewis’ other awards include their 2022 induction into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in the 2017 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. They have received over 100 ASCAP Awards and have won ASCAP Writers-of-the-Year award nine times.
To what do they owe to their success? As Jam explains in the Classicpopmag.com interview, “You have to live life to be able to write about it.”
For tickets and more information, log on to www.pittsburghjazzfestival.org.
The 13th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens (PIJF) and produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center returns to AWAACC and Highmark Stadium September 14 – 17, 2023. Featured artists include Gregory Porter, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ledisi, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, Nicholas Payton, Bob James, Orrin Evans, José James, PJ Morton, Keyon Harrold with special guests Pharoahe Monch and Mumu Fresh, Nigel Hall, Madison McFerrin, Christie Dashiell, Chelsea Baratz, Howie Alexander and more.
SPONSORS
Special thanks to Citizens, the Presenting Sponsor for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. Additional sponsorship support is provided by UPMC, UPMC Health Plan, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Doris Duke Foundation, Comcast NBC Universal and Xfinity and P&W BMW and Mini of Pittsburgh. Presenting Sponsor, Libation Station Tent, is Bacardi.
CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $226.7 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and more than 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.
The set list of Jam and Lewis can draw from many of their aforementioned tunes, as well as their hits by their former group, The Time. And, don’t forget their 2021 debut CD, Jam & Lewis Vol. 1, featuring Nesby, Babyface, Mariah Carey, The Roots, Usher, Charlie Wilson, Heather Headley, Mary J. Blige, Morris Day and Jerome Benton.
Their numbers speak for themselves: 16 #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart, 26 #1 R&B singles and over 100 gold, platinum, multi-platinum and diamond albums. The sonic source of Jam’s and Lewis’ success is the Minneapolis Sound: a synth-driven blend of rock, R&B and funk they co-created with Prince, Andre Cymone and Morris Day. That sound catapulted Janet Jackson to stardom, and the duo also worked with a wide spectrum of artists from Patti Labelle, The Sounds of Blackness, Boyz II Men, Mary J. Blige, Chaka Khan, George Michael, The Human League and Earth, Wind and Fire, to name a very select few.
The origins of the Minneapolis Sound spring from Jam’s and Lewis’ childhood growing up in that city in the late sixties and seventies. They met in a junior high school Upward Bound program, initially played in rival bands that included a musical prodigy named Prince. Jam and Lewis eventually joined forces in a group called Flyte Tyme, which included Morris Day on drums. When Prince signed with Warner Brothers and launched his career, he recruited Jam and Lewis and created and produced the funk band, The Time, whose hits included “Jungle Love,” “The Bird” and “7779311.”
Against Prince’s wishes, Jam and Lewis started working as producers. In March of 1983, they were in Atlanta working with The SOS Band when a rare blizzard grounded the duo, made them miss a gig with The Time in San Antonio, and were fired by Prince. “… [He] freed us to pursue our destiny,” says Lewis in an interview with Classicpopmag.com. “The fact we ended up working, getting in a snowstorm and getting fired for it was apropos – because it was bound to happen. So, at that point, Prince freed us, the same night we were mixing The SOS Band’s “Just Be Good to Me.” Without missing a beat, Jam and Lewis finished producing The SOS Band, who were signed to the late legendary music executive’s Clarence Avant’s Tabu label.
But, it was with Janet Jackson that Jam and Lewis found their greatest success as producers. They transformed her image as a shy performer into a powerhouse entertainer with mega hit albums including “Control,” “Janet Jackson’s Rhythm Nation 1814,” “Janet,” “The Velvet Rope,” All For You,” “Damita Jo” “20 Y.O.,” “Discipline” and “Unbreakable.”
In addition to working with the aforementioned artists, some of the compositions Jam and Lewis wrote were covered by jazz artists. The Pollyseeds, featuring pianist Robert Glasper and keyboardist/saxophonist Terrace Martin, and bassist Stanley Clarke, recorded their versions of Janet Jackson’s ballad “Funny How Time Flies (When You’re Having Fun),” drummer/composer Joe Chambers arranged a Latin-tinged take of Jackson’s “Come Back to Me” and a swinging rendition of another Jackson ballad “Let’s Wait Awhile” was rendered by tenor saxophonist Marcus Strickland and vocalist/keyboardist Christie Dashiell. On another jazzy note, their band Flyte Tyme took its name from “Flight Time,” a Donald Byrd song.
Along with their Grammys, Jam’s and Lewis’ other awards include their 2022 induction into The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and in the 2017 class of the Songwriters Hall of Fame. They have received over 100 ASCAP Awards and have won ASCAP Writers-of-the-Year award nine times.
To what do they owe to their success? As Jam explains in the Classicpopmag.com interview, “You have to live life to be able to write about it.”
For tickets and more information, log on to www.pittsburghjazzfestival.org.
The 13th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens (PIJF) and produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center returns to AWAACC and Highmark Stadium September 14 – 17, 2023. Featured artists include Gregory Porter, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ledisi, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, Nicholas Payton, Bob James, Orrin Evans, José James, PJ Morton, Keyon Harrold with special guests Pharoahe Monch and Mumu Fresh, Nigel Hall, Madison McFerrin, Christie Dashiell, Chelsea Baratz, Howie Alexander and more.
SPONSORS
Special thanks to Citizens, the Presenting Sponsor for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. Additional sponsorship support is provided by UPMC, UPMC Health Plan, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Doris Duke Foundation, Comcast NBC Universal and Xfinity and P&W BMW and Mini of Pittsburgh. Presenting Sponsor, Libation Station Tent, is Bacardi.
CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $226.7 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and more than 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.
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MEDIA CONTACT: Carolyn McClair
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