James Ingram, R&B star and Michael Jackson collaborator, dies aged 66

US R&B artist James Ingram has died aged 66. TMZ reported that he had brain cancer. Ingram won two Grammy awards during his career: his performance on the Quincy Jones song One Hundred Ways earned him best male R&B vocal performance in 1982, and Yah Mo B There, a collaboration with the Doobie Brothers’ Michael McDonald, won best R&B performance by a group or duo with vocals in 1985.

Ingram had two No 1 singles on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart: Baby, Come to Me with Patti Austin in 1982, and I Don’t Have the Heart in 1990. He co-wrote with frequent collaborator Jones the song PYT (Pretty Young Thing), included on Michael Jackson’s 1982 album Thriller.

“It’s almost like I got the chance to go to Oz, and Quincy was the Wizard of Oz and Michael Jackson was who he was dealing with in his world,” he told Jet magazine in 1997. “Their work ethic is unbelievable.” Ingram sang on the 1985 US for Africa charity single We Are the World, which Jones produced.

Jones paid tribute to Ingram in a statement to Billboard: “With that soulful, whisky-sounding voice, James Ingram was simply magical … Every beautiful note that James sang pierced your essence and comfortably made itself at home. But it was really no surprise, because James was a beautiful human being, with a heart the size of the moon. James Ingram was, and always will be, beyond compare.”

Ingram was born in Ohio in 1952. He started performing after moving to Los Angeles, where he joined the band Revelation Funk. He played keyboards for Ray Charles, and he sang on Jones’s album The Dude in 1981. Two years later, he launched a solo career with the release of his debut, It’s Your Night.

Ingram’s other collaborations included Donna Summer, Anita Baker, Nancy Wilson, Natalie Cole, Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers. His 1987 duet with Linda Ronstadt, Somewhere Out There, was a Top 10 hit in the UK and the US. Its songwriters won a Grammy for song of the year.

Fifteen years elapsed between the release of Ingram’s fourth album, Always You in 1993, and his 2008 gospel album Stand (In the Light). During the 90s, he contributed to the soundtracks for children’s films such as Timmy’s Gift: A Precious Moments Christmas Story, Beethoven’s 2nd and Cats Don’t Dance.

Sheila E, Gladys Knight, Shonda Rhimes and Roots drummer Questlove are among the stars who have paid tribute to Ingram. “He could SAAAAAANG, but under the guidance of Quincy Jones found a music backdrop that allowed him to dwell in spaces meant for Kenny Loggins or Barry Manilow,” Questlove wrote on Instagram.

He suggested that Ingram’s work “set the stage” for Dr Dre’s pivotal 1992 debut album, The Chronic, praising his “explicit blackness” and the way he established a “strong arsenal of hits [without] having to ‘make it more palatable’ to [his] audience”.