Guitarist with Miles Davis who produced Madonna's first album
Born: February 25, 1953
Died: May 19, 2018
REGGIE Lucas, who has died aged 65, was a Grammy award-winning guitarist, songwriter and producer who worked with Miles Davis during his electric period in the 1970s before producing Madonna's debut album in the early 1980s.
By the time he came to work with Madonna, Lucas had already had success as a guitarist with Davis, but also as a producer and songwriter with Roberta Flack, and with Stephanie Mills's 1980 hit Never Knew Love Like This Before, which won the 1981 Grammy award for best R&B song.
Speaking to Rolling Stone magazine in 2013 about Madonna, Lucas said that at the time it was he who was the bigger name of the two. "When Warner Brothers called me about working with Madonna, I was the big score," he said. "It seems ridiculous in retrospect, but I was an established professional and she was a nobody. I met with her at a tiny little apartment she had in the Lower East Side. I thought she was vivacious and sexy and interesting, and had a lot of energy."
However, the collaboration with the then-little-known Madonna proved to be difficult. She was more influenced by dance and new wave whereas Lucas was interested in giving her first album an R&B flavour. In the end, said Lucas, the album was a hybrid of the two and produced several hits including Borderline, which Lucas wrote, Lucky Star and Burning Up. Lucas produced six of the eight songs on the album.
Rerginald Grant Lucas was born on February 25, 1953 in the Queens borough of New York City and learned to play piano and guitar as a child. He attended the Bronx High School of Science but dropped out and moved to Philadelphia where he began playing in nightclubs.
It was in Philadelphia that he was spotted by Miles Davis who asked the 18-year-old to join his band, which led to him playing on the jazz great's 1972 album On The Corner - an LP that met with a difficult critical reception. Lucas also played for Davis on the live albums Agharta, Pangaea and Dark Magus. He also released a solo album, Survival Themes, in 1976.
After playing with Davis in the 70s, Lucas began a musical partnership with percussionist James Mtume. Together they wrote hits like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway’s The Closer I Get to You — later covered by Beyonce and Luther Vandross — and Never Knew Love Like This Before.
The performer’s daughter, Lisa Lucas, said her father died from complications with his heart. “After a long and arduous struggle with his physical heart (his emotional one was perfect) he was called home," she said. "I wish he’d had more time, I wish we’d all had more time with him, but he left this world absolutely covered in love, with his hands held and his family beside him.”
In addition to his daughter, Lucas is survived by his wife Leslie Lucas and his son Julian Lucas.
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