Curtis Mayfield

Who2 Biography: Curtis Mayfield, Soul Musician

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Born: 3 June 1942
Birthplace: Chicago, Illinois
Died: 26 December 1999
Best Known As: Musical creator of Superfly

A versatile and creative musician, Curtis Mayfield is usually remembered for performing the funky soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation movie Superfly. The album is considered one of R&B's landmark discs, and Mayfield became an influence on many later soul, rock, and R&B musicians. Mayfield was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice: as an individual performer (inducted 1999) and as the leader of the 1960s soul group the Impressions (inducted 1991).

In 1990 Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down in a freak onstage accident at a Brooklyn concert.

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Black Biography: Curtis Mayfield

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singer; guitarist; songwriter; media executive; civil rights activist

Personal Information

Born Curtis Lee Mayfield on June 3, 1942, in Chicago, IL; died on December 26, 1999, in Atlanta, GA of natural causes; married three times; children: eleven.

Career

The Impressions, lead singer and songwriter, 1958-70; Curtom Record and Publishing Co., owner, 1970-99; solo performer, 1970-99.

Life's Work

Curtis Mayfield was an early comer to the world of music. When he was barely ten years old he was already writing music, and by the time he was fifteen he was invited to join the group the Impressions, a group that would come to be known world-wide for its rhythm and blues sound found in such songs as "Gypsy Woman," the song for which the group was eventually honored with a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Mayfield went on to an incredibly successful solo career during which he became famous for such popular songs as "Superfly" and "Freddie's Dead." He was a political man, many of whose songs, such as "We're a Winner," "I'm So Proud," and "People Get Ready," were unofficially associated with the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. In 1990 Mayfield was injured during a concert rehearsal and paralyzed. He didn't let that stop him, however, and before his death in 1999 Mayfield wrote more music and was admitted as a solo artist into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Joined the Impressions

Born on June 3, 1942, Curtis Lee Mayfield grew up in a poor family that moved from neighborhood to neighborhood in Chicago. By the time he was in high school, his family had settled in the Cabrini-Green projects on Chicago's North Side. Mayfield's strongest early musical influence came from his membership in a local gospel group called the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, which included three cousins and Jerry Butler. But young Mayfield was also interested in his own music. As Mayfield told the Detroit News in 1974, "I was writing music when I was 10 or 11 years old." Mayfield's grandmother was a preacher in the Traveling Souls Spiritualist Church, and traces of church and gospel music are evident in many of his compositions. Mayfield attended Wells High School on Chicago's North Side along with another popular singer, Major Lance, but he left when he was in the tenth grade to begin performing with the Impressions.

The Impressions began playing around 1956 as the Roosters in Chattanooga, Tennessee, with Fred Cash, Sam Gooden, Emanuel Thomas, and the brothers Richard and Arthur Brooks. Seeking to advance their musical careers, Gooden and the Brooks brothers went north to Chicago in 1957 and moved to the North Side in the Cabrini-Green projects. Jerry Butler was a senior in high school at the time, and he acted as a replacement for the vocalists who had stayed in Tennessee. Butler encouraged Mayfield to join the group, saying they needed someone "who could play an instrument and who could help us get our harmony together," as quoted by Robert Pruter in Chicago Soul. By this time, Mayfield was writing gospel-influenced songs and had learned how to play the guitar.

The group made some early recordings for the Bandera label and were then discovered by Eddie Thomas of Vee Jay records, who became their manager and changed their name to the Impressions. Vee Jay and Chess records were two of Chicago's major rhythm and blues labels of the time, and the Impressions made their first record for Vee Jay about six months after Mayfield joined the group. Released on the company's subsidiary label, Falcon, "For Your Precious Love" featured Jerry Butler's lead vocals. Its first issue sold over nine hundred thousand copies. Vee Jay's A&R man Calvin Carter signed them immediately after hearing the song, which he reportedly liked for its spiritual feel, a genuine departure from the doo-wop harmonies of the day.

Vee Jay promoted the group as "Jerry Butler and the Impressions" and developed Butler as a solo artist. After three singles, Butler left the group to go out on his own. As Mayfield told Pruter, "When Jerry left ... it allowed me to generate and pull out my own talents as a writer and a vocalist." Mayfield's soprano singing contrasted with Butler's baritone leads. The group released a few singles with Mayfield as leader and then was dropped by Vee Jay. From 1959 to 1961, the Impressions temporarily split up, and Mayfield began writing songs and playing guitar for Butler in 1960.

Gospel Influence Proved Popular

By 1961 Mayfield had saved enough money--about a thousand dollars--to regroup the Impressions and take them to New York to arrange a recording session. In July they recorded "Gypsy Woman" for ABC-Paramount. Mayfield was only 18 when the group signed with ABC-Paramount, and it was the beginning of a seven-year string of popular and rhythm and blues hits that were all composed by Mayfield. Mayfield, Sam Gooden, Fred Cash, and Arthur and Richard Brooks sang on "Gypsy Woman." The Brooks brothers left the Impressions in 1962, and the remaining members continued as a trio throughout the 1960s.

In 1963 the group recorded "It's All Right," which Pruter termed "the first single to define the classic style of the 1960s Impressions." Producer Jerry Pate "lifted the energy level considerably, adding blaring horns and a more forceful, percussive bottom," wrote Pruter. "It's All Right" was a crossover hit that went to Number Four on the pop charts and Number One on the rhythm and blues charts in the fall of 1963. The song featured "the lead switching off from among the three and the two others singing in harmony with the lead," Pruter commented in Chicago Soul . It was a fresh new sound in rhythm and blues, but critics have noted that it came directly from Mayfield's gospel singing experience.

In 1964 the Impressions became a major act with a series of strong singles that included "I'm So Proud," "Keep On Pushing," and "Amen." Mayfield was apparently inspired by the emergence of the civil rights movement. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and Jesse Jackson adopted "Keep On Pushing" as an unofficial theme song for the movement. Dan Kening, writing in the Chicago Tribune, proclaimed that Mayfield's "inspirational lyrics reflected a strong black consciousness while preaching the tenets of hard work, persistence, and faith as the key to achieving equality."

The group peaked with their best material in 1965 when they released "People Get Ready," a song with heavy gospel imagery and feeling. The album of the same name included such songs as "Woman's Got Soul" and the churchy "Meeting Over Yonder." Following this peak, the group was less successful and had fewer hits. In 1967 "We're a Winner" managed to reach Number 14 on Billboard's pop charts, in spite of the fact that many white radio stations, including Chicago's WLS, would not play it. That song, and its follow-up "We're Rolling On," also caused black radio stations problems in the late 1960s. As Pruter wrote, "Surprisingly at that time, black radio had not kept pace with its black constituency and there was a lot of resistance by programmers over playing such 'overtly' political songs. The popularity of those songs ["We're a Winner" and "We're Rolling On"] had the effect of pushing black radio in the direction its listeners were going."

In addition to composing, singing, and playing the guitar, Mayfield was also interested in setting up his own record label. In 1960, at the age of 21, he made the unprecedented move of establishing his own music publishing company, Curtom, while recording at Vee Jay. Mayfield began setting up two labels in 1966, Mayfield and Windy C., but it was in 1968 that he established his most successful label, also named Curtom. He took the Impressions away from ABC and also recorded and produced such artists as Major Lance, Baby Huey and the Babysitters, and the Five Stairsteps. Mayfield's songwriting and producing abilities were a key factor in the label's success, which enjoyed distribution by Buddah from 1968 to 1975 and by Warner Brothers from 1975 until Mayfield folded the label in 1980.

Found Success With Solo Career

Mayfield announced his departure from the Impressions in August of 1970. He began his solo career in 1971, offering "a biting commentary of the American scene and impressions of oppressed people," according to a review in Billboard. A New York Times music critic said of his first solo album, Curtis: "Mayfield himself continues to be a kind of contemporary preacher-through-music. He sings in a breathlessly high, pure voice, breaking his phrases into speech-like patterns, his rhythms pushed by the urgency of his thought.... He is not a lyrical singer, and his message seems as important to him as his melody." Including songs of up to ten minutes in length, Curtis established Mayfield as an album rather than a singles artist.

Mayfield began a successful career writing soundtracks for films with the 1972 movie, Superfly. Somewhat controversial, the film glorified the life of a drug pusher and was part of the then-popular genre of "blaxploitation" films. According to a New York Times review, "Mayfield's music is more specifically anti-drugs than the philosophical content of the movie, and it is also considerably more stylish in design and execution." Two top-ten hit singles resulted from the soundtrack: "Freddie's Dead" and "Superfly."

Throughout the 1970s, Mayfield continued to write soundtracks for several films and solidified his reputation as a solo artist. Mayfield's solo career featured harder sounding songs than he wrote for the Impressions, with didactic lyrics and social commentary. In spite of adverse criticism, Pruter assessed Mayfield's 1970s output positively, writing, "Some of the very best black popular music of the 1970s came from Mayfield, who despite the many misses during the decade was one of the creative leaders in establishing a new contemporary style of rhythm and blues, one with a militant, harder edge."

The Impressions regrouped in 1983 for a reunion tour. Original members Butler, Mayfield, Gooden, and Cash performed the 1960s hits of the Impressions along with the solo hits of Butler and Mayfield. As reviewed by Robert Palmer in the New York Times, the performances "amounted to a capsule history of recent black popular music, from the slick doo-wop and grittier gospel-based vocal group styles of the 1950s to Mr. Butler's urbane pop-soul, Curtis Mayfield's soul message songs and later funk, and the styles the Impressions have tackled as a group." Palmer continued: "The Impressions were one of the two top rhythm-and-blues vocal groups of the 1960s; the other was the Temptations. Both were rooted in the rich traditions of black gospel music."

Mayfield's influence on a new generation of listeners was evident in many ways. His 1960s compositions for the Impressions have enjoyed numerous cover versions from a wide range of popular singers. And some critics have suggested that his anti-drug messages, most emphatically expressed in the songs for Superfly, fit well with the new films created by young black filmmakers. Popular rap singer and actor Ice-T, who sang on "Superfly 1990" with Mayfield, said in tribute to the artist, "There's only been a couple of people I've met [in the music business] that to me are really heavy. Curtis is one of them."

Continued Career After Paralyzing Accident

A native Chicagoan who moved to Atlanta in 1980, Curtis Mayfield was enjoying the best comeback year of his career in 1990. His soul vocal group the Impressions, was nominated for a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and a successful cover version of their 1961 hit "Gypsy Woman," was recorded by Santana. Take It to the Streets, Mayfield's first album in more than five years, was released in early 1990, and he toured the United States, Europe, and Japan to promote it. Capitol Records was set to release the soundtrack to The Return of Superfly, a rap sampler featuring four original songs written and performed by Mayfield.

Then tragedy struck. On a windy summer night in August of 1990, Mayfield was getting set to start a concert at Wingate Field in Brooklyn. As he was plugging in his guitar, a gust of wind toppled a light tower near the stage, striking him in the head. The accident resulted in three broken vertebrae and paralysis for Mayfield from the neck down. After spending a week in a Brooklyn hospital, he was transferred to the Shepherd Spinal Center in Atlanta. Keeping his spirits up, Mayfield began physical therapy in September of 1990 and made his first public appearance in February of 1991, when he donated $100,000 to set up the Curtis Mayfield Research Fund at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis in Florida. His family was reportedly hopeful that his physical therapy will enable him to make at least a partial recovery.

Mayfield might have been injured, but he wasn't forgotten. Various artists got together in 1994 to put out a tribute album in honor of the great Curtis Mayfield, including Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, the Isley Brothers, and Bruce Springsteen. Mayfield himself got back into the recording studio to do "All Men Are Brothers" for the album. He told Guitar Player magazine that the album meant a lot to him. "I was just overwhelmed. It brought tears to my eyes. As they would record them, they would send me copies of each. I'd play them over and over, and there wasn't a song I didn't like. It just goes to show you that no matter how bad things might get, there's always room for something good to happen."

And Mayfield's music stayed alive. Rhino Records came out with a three-CD boxed set of Mayfield's music in 1996. It included music from his days with the Impressions through to his later solo career. In 1997 Mayfield released the new album New World Order. When asked how his music writing had changed since his accident, Mayfield told People Weekly, "It's difficult simply because when an idea hits me, I can't just up and grab a guitar or recorder or a pencil and write it down.... But I'm happy to know I can still lock in lyrics, and I have enough voice and strength in my lungs to sing a song." As an even greater tribute to the man and his music, Mayfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for his solo recordings.

On December 26, 1999, Mayfield died in Atlanta, Georgia of natural causes. Even though he had passed on, his music and career continue to be influential. In 2000 a two-hour musical celebration was held to commemorate Mayfield's life and career at the First AME Church in Los Angeles. Performers such as Stevie Wonder, Lauryn Hill, the Impressions, Mayfield's old band, and Danny Glover led the event. Also in 2000, Mayfield was posthumously inducted into the Songwriters' Hall of Fame. It is a great tribute to a man who led many in their paths to musical art. As Eric Clapton told Guitar Player magazine, "Curtis changed the course of modern music, bringing refinement, cool, and social comment to R&B and leading the way for songwriters, players, and singers in all fields of music. He [was] a great talent and inspiration to us all.

Awards

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, inductee with the Impressions, 1990; Nat. Acad. of Recording Arts & Sciences Lifetime Achievement Award, 1994; Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, inductee as a solo artist, 1998; Songwriters' Hall of Fame, inductee, 2000.

Works

Selected discography

(With The Impressions) The Impressions, ABC-Paramount, 1963.
(With The Impressions) The Never Ending Impressions, ABC-Paramount, 1964.
(With The Impressions) Keep On Pushing, ABC-Paramount, 1964.
(With The Impressions) People Get Ready, ABC-Paramount, 1965.
(With The Impressions) Ridin' High, ABC-Paramount, 1966.
(With The Impressions) The Fabulous Impressions, ABC-Paramount, 1967.
(With The Impressions) This Is My Country, Curtom, 1968.
(With The Impressions) Young Mods' Forgotten Story, Curtom, 1969.
(With The Impressions) Check Out Your Mind, Curtom, 1970.
(With The Impressions) The Vintage Years: Featuring Jerry Butler and Curtis Mayfield, Sire, 1976.
Curtis, Curtom, 1970.
Curtis Live, Curtom, 1971.
Roots, Curtom, 1971.
Superfly (soundtrack), Curtom, 1972.
Back to the World, Curtom, 1973.
Sweet Exorcist, Curtom, 1974.
Got to Find a Way, Curtom, 1974.
There's No Place Like America, Curtom, 1975.
Give Get Take and Have, Curtom, 1976.
Never Say You Can't Survive, Curtom, 1977.
Short Eyes (soundtrack), Curtom, 1977.
Do It All Night, Curtom, 1978.
Heartbeat, RSO/Curtom, 1978.
Something to Believe In, RSO/Curtom, 1979.
The Right Combination, RSO/Curtom, 1980.
Honesty, Boardwalk, 1982.
Take It to the Streets, Curtom, 1990.
The Return of Superfly (soundtrack), Capitol, 1990.
New World Order, 1996.

Biography

Perhaps because he didn't cross over to the pop audience as heavily as Motown's stars, it may be that the scope of Curtis Mayfield's talents and contributions have yet to be fully recognized. Judged merely by his records alone, the man's legacy is enormous. As the leader of the Impressions, he recorded some of the finest soul vocal group music of the 1960s. As a solo artist in the 1970s, he helped pioneer funk and helped introduce hard-hitting urban commentary into soul music. "Gypsy Woman," "It's All Right," "People Get Ready," "Freddie's Dead," and "Superfly" are merely the most famous of his many hit records.

But Curtis Mayfield wasn't just a singer. He wrote most of his material at a time when that was not the norm for soul performers. He was among the first -- if not the very first -- to speak openly about African-American pride and community struggle in his compositions. As a songwriter and a producer, he was a key architect of Chicago soul, penning material and working on sessions by notable Windy City soulsters like Gene Chandler, Jerry Butler, Major Lance, and Billy Butler. In this sense, he can be compared to Smokey Robinson, who also managed to find time to write and produce many classics for other soul stars. Mayfield was also an excellent guitarist, and his rolling, Latin-influenced lines were highlights of the Impressions' recordings in the '60s. During the next decade, he would toughen up his guitar work and production, incorporating some of the best features of psychedelic rock and funk.

Mayfield began his career as an associate of Jerry Butler, with whom he formed the Impressions in the late '50s. After the Impressions had a big hit in 1958 with "For Your Precious Love," Butler, who had sung lead on the record, split to start a solo career. Mayfield, while keeping the Impressions together, continued to write for and tour with Butler before the Impressions got their first Top 20 hit in 1961, "Gypsy Woman."

Mayfield was heavily steeped in gospel music before he entered the pop arena, and gospel, as well as doo wop, influences would figure prominently in most of his '60s work. Mayfield wasn't a staunch traditionalist, however. He and the Impressions may have often worked the call-and-response gospel style, but his songs (romantic and otherwise) were often veiled or unveiled messages of black pride, reflecting the increased confidence and self-determination of the African-American community. Musically he was an innovator as well, using arrangements that employed the punchy, blaring horns and Latin-influenced rhythms that came to be trademark flourishes of Chicago soul. As the staff producer for the OKeh label, Mayfield was also instrumental in lending his talents to the work of other Chi-town soul singers who went on to national success. With Mayfield singing lead and playing guitar, the Impressions had 14 Top 40 hits in the 1960s (five made the Top 20 in 1964 alone), and released some above-average albums during that period as well.

Given Mayfield's prodigious talents, it was perhaps inevitable that he would eventually leave the Impressions to begin a solo career, as he did in 1970. His first few singles boasted a harder, more funk-driven sound; singles like "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Gonna Go" found him confronting ghetto life with a realism that had rarely been heard on record. He really didn't hit his artistic or commercial stride as a solo artist, though, until Superfly, his soundtrack to a 1972 blaxploitation film. Drug deals, ghetto shootings, the death of young black men before their time: all were described in penetrating detail. Yet Mayfield's irrepressible falsetto vocals, uplifting melodies, and fabulous funk pop arrangements gave the oft-moralizing material a graceful strength that few others could have achieved. For all the glory of his past work, Superfly stands as his crowning achievement, not to mention a much-needed counterpoint to the sensationalistic portrayals of the film itself.

At this point Mayfield, along with Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, was the foremost exponent of a new level of compelling auteurism in soul. His failure to maintain the standards of Superfly qualifies as one of the great disappointments in the history of black popular music. Perhaps he'd simply reached his peak after a long climb, but the rest of his '70s work didn't match the musical brilliance and lyrical subtleties of Superfly, although he had a few large R&B hits in a much more conventional vein, such as "Kung Fu," "So in Love," and "Only You Babe."

Mayfield had a couple of hits in the early '80s, but the decade generally found his commercial fortunes in a steady downward spiral, despite some intermittent albums. On August 14, 1990, he became paralyzed from the neck down when a lighting rig fell on top of him at a concert in Brooklyn, NY. In the mid-'90s, a couple of tribute albums consisting of Mayfield covers appeared, with contributions by such superstars as Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, and Gladys Knight. Though no substitute for the man himself, these tributes served as an indication of the enormous regard in which Mayfield was still held by his peers. He died December 26, 1999 at the age of 57. ~ Richie Unterberger, All Music Guide

Discography: Curtis Mayfield

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Got Soul: 1960-1973 Buy this CD	Superfly [Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition] Buy this CD	Superfly [Deluxe 25th Anniversary Edition] Buy this CD	Masters [Cleopatra] Buy this CD	Curtis Mayfield's Chicago Soul Buy this CD
Curtis/Got to Find a Way Buy this CD	Roots/Sweet Exorcist Buy this CD	Back to the World/Love Is the Place Buy this CD	Live at Ronnie Scott's [DualDisc] Buy this CD	Move on Up [Armoury] Buy this CD
Nobody But You Buy this CD	Move on Up: The Singles Anthology Buy this CD	Live at Ronnie Scott's Buy this CD	Live at Ronnie Scott's Buy this CD	Move on Up [Prism] Buy this CD
Definitive Collection [Mastercuts] Buy this CD	Very Best of Curtis Mayfield [Rhino] Buy this CD	Superfly (And More) [Musicpro] Buy this CD	There's No Place Like America Today/Give Get Take Have Buy this CD	Curtis/Live! & Curtis in Chicago Buy this CD
Immortal Curtis Mayfield: Superfly Guy Buy this CD	Essentials Buy this CD	Love Songs, Vol. 1 Buy this CD	Love Is the Place Buy this CD	20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Curtis Mayfield Buy this CD
Very Best of Curtis Mayfield [Castle] Buy this CD	People Get Ready: Live at Ronnie Scott's Buy this CD	Soul Legacy Buy this CD	Superfly [Rhino] Buy this CD	Definitive Soul Collection Buy this CD
Ultimate Curtis Mayfield Buy this CD	Gospel [Rhino] Buy this CD	Love Songs [Rhino] Buy this CD	People Get Ready: The Curtis Mayfield Story Buy this CD	Soul Music Buy this CD
Great Curtis Mayfield Buy this CD	Mayfield: Remixed - The Curtis Mayfield Collection Buy this CD	Love to the People Buy this CD	Superfly [Charly] Buy this CD	Anthology 1961-1977 Buy this CD
Superfly & Other Hits Buy this CD	Curtis [Japan Bonus Track] Buy this CD	Curtis [Sunspot/Curtom/Get Back] Buy this CD	Living Legend Buy this CD	Beautiful Brother: The Essential Curtis Mayfield Buy this CD
Love Is the Place/Honesty Buy this CD	Movin' on Up 1965-1974 Buy this CD	Greatest Hits Buy this CD	Heartbeat/Something to Believe In Buy this CD	Never Say You Can't Survive/Do It All Night Buy this CD
We Come in Peace/Take It to the Streets Buy this CD	Give It Up: The Best of the Curtom Years 1970-1977 Buy this CD	Love, Peace, Understanding Buy this CD	Masters [Eagle] Buy this CD	Definitive Collection [Charly] Buy this CD
Move on Up [Dressed to Kill] Buy this CD	Take It to the Streets Buy this CD	Live in Europe Buy this CD	We Come in Peace Buy this CD	Honesty Buy this CD
Something to Believe In Buy this CD	Give Get Take Have Buy this CD	Back to the World Buy this CD	Back to the World Buy this CD	Superfly Buy this CD
Roots Buy this CD	Curtis/Live! Buy this CD	Curtis Buy this CD	Curtis Buy this CD

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Actor: Curtis Mayfield

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Born: Jun 03, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois
Died: Dec 26, 1999
Occupation: Actor
Active: '70s-'90s
Major Genres: Music, Crime
Career Highlights: Hairspray, Superfly, Short Eyes
First Major Screen Credit: Superfly (1972)

Biography

Musical legend Curtis Mayfield, apart from being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and being awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and a Grammy Legend Award, is generally recognized as one of the most influential and talented musicians in the history of American music. His film involvement should come as no surprise, considering his fame and talent. Mayfield died in late 1999, at the age of 57. ~ All Movie Guide

Filmography: Curtis Mayfield

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Wikipedia: Curtis Mayfield

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For other uses, see Mayfield.

Curtis Mayfield
Curtis Mayfield performing on the movie, "Superfly".
Background information
Birth name	Curtis Lee Mayfield
Born	June 3, 1942(1942-06-03) Chicago, Illinois, United States
Died	December 26, 1999 (aged 57) Roswell, Georgia, United States
Genres	soul, r&b, funk, Chicago soul, psychedelic soul
Occupations	singer-songwriter, record producer, multi-instrumentalist
Instruments	vocals, guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, drums
Years active	1958–1999
Labels	Curtom, Warner Bros., Rhino
Associated acts	The Impressions, Jerry Butler
Notable instruments
Fender Stratocaster

Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions and composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly. From these works and others, he is highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music.^[1]^[2] He was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone, and drums.

1 Biography
2 Legacy
- 2.1 Chart hits by other artists written by Mayfield
3 Tributes
4 Discography
5 References
6 External links

Biography

Early years and The Impressions

Born on June 3, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois, Mayfield was the son of Marion Washington and Kenneth Mayfield. Mayfield's father abandoned the family when Mayfield was five and his mother moved Curtis and his siblings into various Chicago projects before settling at the Cabrini High projects when Mayfield reached teenage. Mayfield attended Wells High School. He dropped out of high school early to become lead singer and songwriter for The Impressions, then went on to a successful solo career. Perhaps most notably, Mayfield was among the first of a new wave of mainstream African-American R&B performing artists and composers injecting social commentary into their work.^[1] This "message music" became extremely popular during the 1960s and 1970s.

Mayfield had several distinctions to his style of playing and singing, adding to the uniqueness of his music. When he taught himself how to play guitar, he tuned the guitar to the black keys of the piano, giving him an open F-sharp tuning — F#, A#, C#, F#, A#, F# — that he used throughout his career. ^[3] Also, he sang most of his lines in falsetto (not unique in itself, but other singers in his time mostly sang tenor), adding another flavor to his music.

Mayfield's career began in 1956 when he joined The Roosters with Arthur and Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler. Two years later The Roosters, now including also Sam Gooden, became The Impressions.^[4] The band had one big hit with "For Your Precious Love". After Butler left the group and was replaced with Fred Cash, Mayfield became lead singer, frequently composing for the band, starting with "Gypsy Woman". Their hit "Amen," an updated version of an old gospel tune, was included in the soundtrack of the 1963 MGM film Lilies of the Field, which starred Sidney Poitier. The Impressions reached the height of their popularity in the mid to late 1960s, with a string of Mayfield compositions that included "Keep On Pushing," "People Get Ready," "It's All Right", "Woman's Got Soul", "Choice of Colors," "Fool For You," "This is My Country" and "Check Out Your Mind." Mayfield had written much of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s, but by the end of the decade he was a pioneering voice in the black pride movement, in the company of James Brown and Sly Stone. Mayfield's "We're a Winner", a Number 1 soul hit which also reached the Billboard pop Top 20, became an anthem of the black power and black pride movements when it was released in late 1967,^[5] much as his earlier "Keep on Pushing" (whose title is quoted in the lyrics of "We're a Winner") had been an anthem for Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.^[6]

Independent from his work with The Impressions, Mayfield became a songwriting powerhouse in Chicago, writing and producing scores of hits for other artists. He also owned the Mayfield and Windy C labels, distributed by Cameo-Parkway, and was partners in the Curtom label (first independent, then distributed by Buddah then Warner Bros and finally RSO.)

Solo career

In 1970, Mayfield left The Impressions and began a solo career, founding the independent record label Curtom Records. Curtom would go on to release most of Mayfield's landmark 1970s records, as well as records by the Impressions, Leroy Hutson, The Staple Singers, Mavis Staples, and Baby Huey and the Babysitters, a group which at the time included Chaka Khan. Many of these records were also produced by Mayfield.

The commercial and critical peak of his solo career came with his music album Super Fly, the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film of the same name, and one of the most influential albums in African-American history. Unlike the soundtracks to other blaxploitation films (most notably Isaac Hayes' score for Shaft), which glorified the ghetto excesses of the characters, Mayfield's lyrics consisted of hard-hitting commentary on the state of affairs in black, urban ghettos at the time, as well as direct criticisms of several characters in the film. Bob Donat wrote in Rolling Stone Magazine in 1972 that while the film's message "was diluted by schizoid cross-purposes" because it "glamorizes machismo-cocaine consciousness... the anti-drug message on [Mayfield's soundtrack] is far stronger and more definite than in the film." Along with Marvin Gaye's What's Going On and Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, this album ushered in a new socially conscious, funky style of popular soul music. He was dubbed 'The Gentle Genius' to reflect his outstanding and innovative musical output with the constant presence of his soft yet insistent vocals.

Super Fly brought success that resulted in Mayfield being tapped for additional soundtracks, some of which he wrote and produced while having others perform the vocals. Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded Mayfield's soundtrack for Claudine in 1974, while Aretha Franklin recorded the soundtrack for Sparkle in 1976. Mayfield worked with Mavis Staples on the 1977 soundtrack for the film A Piece of the Action. He was in danger of overreaching himself being writer, producer, performer, arranger and businessman but seemed to cope and still produce a remarkable output.

One of Mayfield's most successful funk-disco meldings was the 1977 hit "Do Do Wap is Strong in Here" from his soundtrack to the Robert M. Young film of Miguel Piñero's play Short Eyes. In his 2003 biography of Curtis Mayfield, titled "People Never Give Up", author Peter Burns noted that Curtis has 140 songs in the Curtom vaults. Burns indicated that the songs maybe already completed or in the stages of completion, so that they could then be released commercially. These recordings include "The Great Escape", "In The News", "Turn up the Radio", "Whats The Situation?" and one recording labelled "Curtis at Montreux Jazz Festival 87". Two other albums, featuring Curtis Mayfield present in the Curtom vaults and as yet unissued are, a 1982/83 live recording titled "25th Silver Anniversary" (which features performances by Curtis, The Impressions and Jerry Butler) and a live performance, recorded in September 1966 by The Impressions titled 'Live at the Club Chicago'.

In later years, Mayfield's music would be featured in the movies I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, Hollywood Shuffle, and Friday (though not on the soundtrack).

Later years

Mayfield was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s, though he had a somewhat lower public profile. On August 13, 1990, Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment fell on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. This tragedy set him back, but Mayfield forged ahead. He was unable to play guitar, but he wrote, sang and directed the recording of his last album, New World Order. Mayfield's vocals were painstakingly recorded, usually line-by-line while lying on his back.

Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In February, 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Mayfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999. Health reasons prevented him from attending the ceremony, which included fellow inductees Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Dusty Springfield, George Martin, and 1970s Curtom signee and labelmate The Staple Singers.

His last appearance on record was with the group Bran Van 3000 on the song "Astounded" for their album Discosis, recorded just before his death and released in 2001.

Death

Curtis Mayfield died in the early morning of December 26, 1999 at the North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia, after nearly a decade of ill-health. He was survived by his wife, Altheida, 10 children, his mother, two sisters a brother, and seven grandchildren. The singer was cremated, and his ashes were given to his family.

Legacy

Mayfield is remembered for his introduction of social consciousness into R&B and for pioneering the funk style. Many of his recordings with the Impressions became anthems of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, and his most famous album, Super Fly, is regarded as an all-time great that influenced many and truly invented a new style of modern black music (#69 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums). His distinctively sharp, jagged guitar riffs and rhythms strongly influenced the development of funk, while also having a major effect on the young Jimi Hendrix, who cited Mayfield as his biggest influence.^{[citation needed]} Mayfield is also regarded as influencing other landmark albums, like Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters. One magazine notes, "eulogies...have treated him...as a sort of secular saint--rather like an American Bob Marley".^{[citation needed]} That noted, he is not as well-known as contemporaries like Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, or James Brown, perhaps because of their more consistent streams of hits or more mainstream style of music. Nevertheless, he is still highly regarded for his numerous innovations in the 1960s and 1970s and for his unique style of music, perhaps best described as "black psychedelia...remarkable for the scope of its social awareness".^{[citation needed]}

As a member of The Impressions, Mayfield was posthumously inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.

In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Mayfield #99 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time^[7].

Chart hits by other artists written by Mayfield

Mayfield was a prolific composer. In addition to writing or co-writing almost all of the hit singles he had as a member of The Impressions and as a solo artist, Mayfield also wrote (and sometimes produced) numerous hits for other artists. The following is a list of chart hits, arranged chronologically, that were written (or co-written) by Curtis Mayfield and performed by artists other than Mayfield and/or The Impressions:

Year	Title	Artist	U.S. R&B^[8]	U.S. Pop^[8]	UK^[9]
1960	"He Will Break Your Heart"	Jerry Butler	1	7	-
1961	"Find Another Girl"	Jerry Butler	10	27	-
1961	"I'm A-Telling You"	Jerry Butler	8	25	-
1963	"Mama Didn't Lie"	Jan Bradley	8	14	-
1963	"Mama Didn't Lie"	The Fascinations	-	108	-
1963	"The Monkey Time"	Major Lance	2	8	-
1963	"Hey Little Girl"	Major Lance	12	13	-
1963	"Rainbow"	Gene Chandler	11	47	-
1963	"Found True Love"	Billy Butler & The Four Enchanters	-	134	-
1963	"Man's Temptation"	Gene Chandler	17	71	-
1964	"Think Nothing About It"	Gene Chandler	28*	107	-
1964	"Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um"	Major Lance	1*	5	40
1964	"Just Be True"	Gene Chandler	4*	19	-
1964	"Gotta Get Away"	Billy Butler & The Enchanters	38*	101	-
1964	"It Ain't No Use"	Major Lance	33*	68	-
1964	"Girls"	Major Lance	25*	68	-
1964	"It's Too Late"	Walter Jackson	10*	67	-
1964	"Nevertheless"	Billy Butler & The Chanters	-	102	-
1964	"Need To Belong"	Jerry Butler	2*	31	-
1964	"Bless Our Love"	Gene Chandler	4*	39	-
1964	"Rhythm"	Major Lance	3*	24	-
1965	"Rainbow '65 (Part I)"	Gene Chandler	2	69	-
1965	"Sometimes I Wonder"	Major Lance	13	64	-
1965	"I Can't Work No Longer"	Billy Butler & The Chanters	6	60	-
1965	"Come See"	Major Lance	20	40	-
1965	"What Now"	Gene Chandler	18	40	-
1965	"Ain't It a Shame"	Major Lance	20	91	-
1965	"Nothing Can Stop Me"	Gene Chandler	3	18	41**
1965	"(I've Got A Feeling) You're Gonna Be Sorry"	Billy Butler	-	103	-
1965	"You Can't Hurt Me No More"	Gene Chandler	40	92	-
1966	"He Will Break Your Heart"	The Righteous Brothers	-	91	-
1966	"Say It Isn't So"	The Fascinations	47	-	-
1967	"Girls Are Out To Get You"	The Fascinations	13	92	32**
1967	"I'm In Love"	The Fascinations	47	-	-
1967	"Danger! She's A Stranger"	The Five Stairsteps	16	89	-
1968	"Don't Change Your Love"	The Five Stairsteps	15	59	-
1969	"Baby Make Me Feel So Good"	The Five Stairsteps	12	101	-
1969	"We Must Be In Love"	The Five Stairsteps	17	88	-
1969	"I Thank You Baby"	June & Donnie (Donny Hathaway & June Conquest)	45	-	-
1969	"Stay Close To Me"	The Five Stairsteps	-	91	-
1970	"Gypsy Woman"	Brian Hyland	-	3	42
1970	"Stay Away From Me (I Love You Too Much)"	Major Lance	13	67	-
1970	"Must Be Love Coming Down"	Major Lance	31	119	-
1970	"I'm So Proud"	The Main Ingredient	13	49	-
1972	"I Thank You" Reissue of 1969 recording "I Thank You Baby", with shorter title and modified artist credit.	Donny Hathaway & June Conquest	41	92	-
1974	"{It's Gonna Be} A Long, Long Winter"	Linda Clifford	75	-	-
1974	"On and On" (from Claudine)	Gladys Knight & The Pips	2	5	-
1974	"Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" New version	Major Lance	59	-	-
1975	"Let's Do It Again"	The Staple Singers	1	1	–
1975	"He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)"	Tony Orlando & Dawn	-	1	-
1976	"New Orleans"	The Staple Singers	4	70	–
1976	"Something He Can Feel"	Aretha Franklin	1	28	-
1976	"Jump"	Aretha Franklin	17	72	-
1976	"Hooked On Your Love"	Aretha Franklin	17	-	-
1976	"Look Into Your Heart"	Aretha Franklin	10	82	-
1977	"A Piece Of The Action"	Mavis Staples	47	-	-
1977	"It's Too Late" New version	Walter Jackson	75	-	-
1977	"Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)"	Johnny Rivers		41
1978	"More Than Just A Joy"	Aretha Franklin	51	-	-
1979	"Between You Baby And Me"	Linda Clifford	14	-	-
1983	"I'm So Proud"	Deniece Williams	28	-	-
1984	"One Love/People Get Ready"	Bob Marley & The Wailers	-	-	5
1985	"People Get Ready"	Jeff Beck & Rod Stewart	-	48	49
1992	"Giving Him Something He Can Feel"	En Vogue	1	6	16
1994	"I'm So Proud"	The Isley Brothers	64	-	-

* Billboard magazine did not publish an R&B chart during 1964; these chart positions are from Cashbox magazine.
** This hit charted three to four years later in the UK.

Tributes

In June 2007 Sinéad O'Connor released two versions (one acoustic and one with full band) of Mayfield's "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue" on her album Theology.

Lauryn Hill sampled "Do Do Wap Is Strong In Here" on her 1998 album The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill.

The Dust Brothers sampled the intro to Mayfield's "Superfly" for the Beastie Boys song "Eggman" on the album "Paul's Boutique".

Hip hop producer Just Blaze has used a slowed down sample of Mayfield's "Move On Up" for the 2006 Kanye West/Lupe Fiasco hit single "Touch The Sky". Eminem sampled Mayfield's song "Pusherman" for his debut LP on the song "I'm Shady". Late rapper 2Pac sampled him consistently as well^{[citation needed]}. "Pusherman" was also covered by Doyle Bramhall II.

Jay-Z sampled "Short Eyes" for his 2007 song "American Gangster" from the eponymous album.

Mary J. Blige samples "give me your love" for her 1994 song "I'm The Only Woman" from the My Life album.

In 1988, Fishbone acknowledged Mayfield's influence on their own vision, "a melting pot of ska, punk, and funk [with] hard rock (...) added to the mix", by choosing to cover Mayfield's early 70's hit "Freddie's Dead" to open their well-regarded Truth and Soul LP, which "also featured (...) several musically varied tracks that deal with the same topic: racism, past and present (...)"

In 1996 Australian vocal band Human Nature recorded 2 a cappella versions of "People Get Ready", one, without the middle verse, on their 1996 Telling Everybody album, and the other, with the middle verse, on their 2001 Here & Now: The Best of Human Nature Album.

Paul Weller routinely cited Mayfield's works as influence and inspiration. With his first band The Jam, Weller recorded Mayfield's "Move On Up" as a B-side on their 1982 single "Beat Surrender".

Monica sampled "The Makings of You" on her 2006 single "A Dozen Roses (You Remind Me)" from her The Makings of Me album. The title of the album refers to that song.

The Techniques, The Uniques, Bob Marley and The Wailers, and many other early vocal groups in Jamaica were deeply influenced by the songwriting, vocal harmonies, and black consciousness that appear as hallmarks on Impressions recordings from the early to mid 1960s. Many of the Wailers' early ska recordings are Impressions covers. One of Marley's most well known songs, "One Love", is in fact a take on "People Get Ready".

Ice-T prominently sampled "Pusherman" on the song I'm Your Pusher; Clipse also sampled "Pusherman" on "Cot Damn" from their 2002 Lord Willin' album.

Souls of Mischief sampled "We're a Winner" on "Limitations" from their debut album 93 'til Infinity.

The music video of "Astounded" by Bran Van 3000, has a still image of Mayfield in one line of the first verse as a tribute.

In 1993, three years after the accident which caused Mayfield's paralysis, Shanachie records released the album People Get Ready: A Tribute to Curtis Mayfield, featuring Jerry Butler, Don Covay, Steve Cropper, lani Groves, Michael Hill, Huey Lewis and the News, Delbert McClinton, Vernon Reid, David Sanborn, Jonathan Sanborn, Angela Strehli, Bunny Wailer, Kim Wilson. According to the album cover, "Fifty percent of all royalties will benefit Curtis Mayfield."

Donell Jones' "When I Was Down" sampled "Freddie's Dead" on Where I Wanna Be (1999).

My Morning Jacket opened their New Year's Eve 2008 show at Madison Square Garden with Mayfield's "Move on Up" off the album Curtis.

Cam'ron sampled the hook from "I'm your Pusherman" for the song "D Rugs" from his debut album Confessions of Fire.

B.o.B and T.I. sampled "I'm your Pusherman" on their song "I'm Dat Nigga".

Indie musician Jenny Toomey (formally of the Washington, DC band and founder of the record label Simple Machines) covered/reworked Mayfield's "Fool for You" on her landmark 1991 double-disc CD Antidote.

Discography

Studio Albums

Curtis (1970)
Roots (1971)
Super Fly (1972)
Back to the World (1973)
Got to Find a Way (1974)
Sweet Exorcist (1974)
There's No Place Like America Today (1975)
Give, Get, Take and Have (1976)
Short Eyes (1977)
Never Say You Can't Survive (1977)
Do It All Night (1978)
Heartbeat (1979)
Something to Believe In (1980)
The Right Combination (with Linda Clifford) (1980)
Love is the Place (1982)
Honesty (1983)
We Come in Peace with a Message of Love (1985)
Take It to the Streets (1990)
New World Order (1997)

Live albums

Compilations

The Anthology 1961-1977 (1992)
People Get Ready: The Curtis Mayfield Story (1996)
The Very Best of Curtis Mayfield (1997)
Soul Legacy (2001)
Greatest Hits (2006)

References

^ ^a ^b Curtis Mayfield, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. "…significant for the forthright way in which he addressed issues of black identity and self-awareness. …left his imprint on the Seventies by couching social commentary and keenly observed black-culture archetypes in funky, danceable rhythms. …sounded urgent pleas for peace and brotherhood over extended, cinematic soul-funk tracks that laid out a fresh musical agenda for the new decade." Accessed on line November 28, 2006.
^ Soul icon Curtis Mayfield dies, BBC News, December 27, 1999. "Credited with introducing social comment to soul music". Accessed on line November 28, 2006.
^ Carpenter, Bill. Uncloudy Days: The Gospel Music Encyclopedia page 273 CMP Media, 2005 ISBb 0879308419 Accessed via Google Books November 20, 2008
^ Soul icon Curtis Mayfield dies, BBC News, 27 December, 1999. Accessed on line 28 November 2006.
^ Curtis Mayfield biography, Internet Movie Database (IMDB). "…1968 hit 'We're A Winner,' became a civil rights anthem" Accessed on line 28 November 2006.
^ Richard Phillips, Curtis Mayfield dies: A modest man of great musical talent and sensitivity, World Socialist Web Site (International Committee of the Fourth International), January 24, 2000. Accessed on line November 28, 2006.
^ "The Immortals: The First Fifty". Rolling Stone Issue 946. Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/5939214/the_immortals_the_first_fifty.
^ ^a ^b Allmusic.com - Charts & Awards
^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Curtis Mayfield

v • d • e Curtis Mayfield

Albums	Curtis (1970) · Roots (1971) · Back to the World (1973) · Got to Find a Way (1974) · Sweet Exorcist (1974) · There's No Place Like America Today (1975) · Give, Get, Take and Have (1976) · Never Say You Can't Survive (1977) · Do It All Night (1978) · Heartbeat (1979) · Something to Believe In (1980) · Love Is the Place (1982) · Honesty (1983) · We Come in Peace with a Message of Love (1985) · Take It to the Streets (1990) · New World Order (1997)

Live albums	Curtis/Live! (1971) · Curtis in Chicago (1973) · Live in Europe (1987) · Live at Ronnie Scott's (1988)

Soundtracks	Superfly (1972) · Claudine (1974) · Let's Do It Again (1975) · Sparkle (1976) · A Piece of the Action (1977) · Short Eyes (1977)

Related Articles	The Impressions – Curtom Records

Persondata
NAME	Mayfield, Curtis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Mayfield, Curtis Lee
SHORT DESCRIPTION	American singer-songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist
DATE OF BIRTH	June 3, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chicago, Illinois, United States
DATE OF DEATH	December 26, 1999
PLACE OF DEATH	Roswell, Georgia, Georgia, United States

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		Who2 Biography. Copyright © 1998-2008 by Who2, LLC. All rights reserved. See the Curtis Mayfield biography from Who2. Read more
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Right Combination/Rapping Buy this CD	Live at Ronnie Scott's [DVD] Buy this CD	Greatest Hits [DFP] Buy this CD	In Concert Buy this CD	Freddie's Dead & Other Hits Buy this CD
Gospel Greats Buy this CD	Gospel Greats Buy this CD	Mayfield Buy this CD	New World Order Buy this CD	Live at Montreux: 1987 [DVD] Buy this CD

Curtis Mayfield

Biography

Biography

Contents

Biography

Early years and The Impressions

Solo career

Later years

Death

Legacy

Chart hits by other artists written by Mayfield

Tributes

Discography

Studio Albums

Live albums

Compilations

References

External links