Curtis Mayfield

Curtis 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 Superfly. From these works and others, he was highly regarded as a pioneer of funk and of politically conscious African-American music. He was also a multi-instrumentalist who played the guitar, bass, piano, saxophone and drums.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Curtis 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 who injected social commentary into their work. This 'message music' became extremely popular during the period of political ferment and social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s.

Curtis 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, a method he used throughout his career. Also, he sang most of his lines in falsetto, unlike other singers of his time who mostly sang tenor.

Curtis' career began in 1956 when he joined the Roosters with Arthur and Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler. Two years later the Roosters, now including Sam Gooden, became the Impressions. 

The band had one big hit with 'For Your Precious Love'. After Jerry Butler left the group and was replaced with Fred Cash, Curtis became lead singer, frequently composing for the band as well, 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 Curtis Mayfield compositions that included 'Keep on Pushin'', 'People Get Ready', 'Choice of Colors', 'Fool for You', 'This Is My Country' and 'Check Out Your Mind'. Curtis had written much of the soundtrack of the civil rights movement alongside Bob Dylan and others 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.

Curtis Mayfield's 'We're a Winner' became an anthem of the black power and black pride movements when it was released in late 1967, 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.

Independent from his work with the Impressions, Curtis became a songwriting powerhouse in Chicago.

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

The commercial and critical peak of his solo career came with his 1972 album Superfly, the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film of the same name and one of the most influential albums in history. Unlike the soundtracks to other blaxploitation films (most notably Isaac Hayes' score for Shaft), which glorified the excesses of the characters, Curtis 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.

He was dubbed 'the Gentle Genius' to reflect his outstanding and innovative musical output with the constant presence of his soft yet insistent vocals.

Superfly's success resulted in Curtis being tapped for additional soundtracks, some of which he wrote and produced while having others perform the vocals. Gladys Knight & the Pips recorded Curtis' soundtrack for Claudine in 1974, while Aretha Franklin recorded the soundtrack for Sparkle in 1976. He 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 his 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.

Curtis Mayfield was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s, though he had a somewhat lower public profile. On August 13, 1990, Curtis 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 Curtis forged ahead. He was unable to play guitar, but he wrote, sang and directed the recording of his last album, New World Order. His vocals were painstakingly recorded, usually line-by-line whilst lying on his back.

Curtis Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995.

In February 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Curtis was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999. Unfortunately, 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 Staples Singers.

Curtis Mayfield died on December 26, 1999 in Roswell, Georgia surrounded by his family. His last work came to be the song 'Astounded', with the group Bran Van 3000, recorded just before his death and released in 2000. As a member of the Impressions Curtis Mayfield was posthumously inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame in 2003.