Curtis Mayfield

From junodog4 02/04/2018 15:07

One of those artists that toiled away for years, both as a writer & a performer, then finally broke away from the shackles of the music business to create truly artistic brilliance... ...only to strangely fade with mediocre work shortly thereafter. He peaks (and what a peak) with Superfly.

Curtis Mayfield is one of the most important contributors to the development of soul and black music. Chicago born Mayfield took the normal soul legend route with his introduction to music coming through local gospel choirs. It was in the choir that Mayfield first met Jerry Butler and together they went on to become members of the Impressions who became one of the major soul acts of the sixties. Mayfield soon established himself as the creative leader of the group, writing material and producing many of their finest songs.

Even during his tenure with the Impressions Mayfield showed himself to be acutely socially and politically aware and, unusually for a sixties soul artist, tried to create songs with meaning and depth. In addition to writing, production and superb vocals Mayfield was also a supreme guitarist and as such ranks alongside Stevie Wonder as the best all round musical talent soul music produced.

Mayfield left the Impressions in 1970 to pursue a solo career but still played an active part in the group acting as their musical director and producer.
Mayfield’s fortunes would take a downward turn as his sincere form of soul music was ignored in favour of the shallowness of the disco boom although he was still in demand as a producer and worked extensively with Aretha Franklin.

Financial troubles related to his record labels haunted Mayfield through the late 70’s and the 80’s were lean years but worse was to come in 1990 when Curtis was crushed by a falling lighting gantry in 1990 which resulted in paralysis from the neck down. The publicity related to the tragedy resulted in increased recognition of Mayfield’s huge contribution to music and resulted in Hall of Fame induction and a ‘Legend’ Grammy award. Despite his paralysis he continued to record until his death in 1999 at the age of 57 and should be remembered as one of the great soul artists