Curtis Lee Mayfield (June 3, 1942 – December 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Dubbed the Gentle Genius, he is considered one of the most influential musicians of soul and socially conscious African-American music. Mayfield first achieved success and recognition with the vocal group the Impressions during the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.
Mayfield started his musical career in a gospel choir. Moving to the North Side of Chicago, he met Jerry Butler in 1956 at the age of 14 and joined the Impressions. The group's lead singer and primary songwriter, Mayfield became noted as one of the first musicians to bring more prevalent themes of social awareness into soul music. In 1965, he wrote "People Get Ready" for the Impressions, which was ranked No. 24 in Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004. The song received numerous other awards; it was included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll", and was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998.
After leaving the Impressions in 1970 in pursuit of a solo career, Mayfield released several albums throughout the decade, including his debut Curtis (1970) and the soundtrack for the 1972 blaxploitation film Super Fly. The soundtrack was noted for its socially conscious themes, primarily addressing issues that heavily affected inner city residents and racial minorities such as crime, poverty and drug abuse. The album was ranked No. 72 in Rolling Stones list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2003.
On August 13, 1990, Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down during an accident in which lighting equipment fell on him during a live performance at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York. Despite this, he continued his career as a recording artist, releasing his final album New World Order in 1996. Mayfield won a Grammy Legend Award in 1994 and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. the son of Marion Washington and Kenneth Mayfield, one of five children.<!--Most reliable sources give Kenneth Mayfield as the name of the father; some others give Curtis Lee Mayfield or Kenneth Washington, though the majority, and the main sources, use Kenneth Mayfield --> Mayfield's father left the family when Curtis was five; his mother (and maternal grandmother) moved the family into several Chicago public housing projects before settling in Cabrini–Green during his teen years. Mayfield attended Wells High School before dropping out his second year. His mother taught him piano and, along with his grandmother, encouraged him to enjoy gospel music. At the age of seven he sang publicly at his aunt's church with the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers.
Mayfield received his first guitar when he was ten, later recalling that he loved his guitar so much he used to sleep with it. He was a self-taught musician, and he grew up admiring blues singer Muddy Waters and Spanish guitarist Andres Segovia.
Career
The Impressions
thumb|The Impressions in 1964, from left to right: Sam Gooden, Curtis Mayfield, and Fred Cash|alt=The three singers wearing suits
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 Sam Gooden, became the Impressions.
Butler was replaced by Fred Cash, a returning original Roosters member, and Mayfield became lead singer, frequently composing for the band, starting with "Gypsy Woman", a Top 20 Pop hit. Their hit "Amen" (Top 10), an updated version of an old gospel tune, was included in the soundtrack of the 1963 United Artists film Lilies of the Field, which starred Sidney Poitier. The Impressions reached the height of their popularity in the mid-to-late-'60s with a string of Mayfield compositions that included "Keep On Pushing", "People Get Ready", "It's All Right" (Top 10), the up-tempo "Talking about My Baby"(Top 20) and "Woman's Got Soul".
He formed his own label, Curtom Records, in Chicago in 1968 and the Impressions joined him to continue their run of hits including "Fool For You", "This is My Country", "Choice Of Colors" 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 along with James Brown and Sly Stone. Mayfield's "We're a Winner" was their last major hit for ABC. Reaching number 14 on Billboards pop chart and number one on the R&B chart, it 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" and also in "Move On Up") had been an anthem for Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement.
Mayfield was a prolific songwriter in Chicago even outside his work for the Impressions, writing and producing scores of hits for many other artists. He also owned the Mayfield and Windy C labels which were distributed by Cameo-Parkway, and was a partner in the Curtom (first independent, then distributed by Buddah then Warner Bros and finally RSO) and Thomas labels (first independent, then distributed by Atlantic, then independent again and finally Buddah).
Among Mayfield's greatest songwriting successes were three hits that he wrote for Jerry Butler on Vee Jay ("He Will Break Your Heart", "Find Another Girl" and "I'm A-Tellin' You"). His harmony vocals are very prominent. He also had great success writing and arranging Jan Bradley's "Mama Didn't Lie". Starting in 1963, he was heavily involved in writing and arranging for OKeh Records (with Carl Davis producing), which included hits by Major Lance such as "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um" and "The Monkey Time", as well as Walter Jackson, Billy Butler and the Artistics. This arrangement ran through 1965.
Solo career
In 1970, Mayfield left the Impressions and began a solo career. Curtom released many of Mayfield's 1970s records, as well as records by the Impressions, Leroy Hutson, the Five Stairsteps, the Staples Singers, Mavis Staples, Linda Clifford, The Natural Four, The Notations and Baby Huey and the Babysitters. Gene Chandler and Major Lance, who had worked with Mayfield during the 1960s, also signed for short stays at Curtom. Many of the label's recordings were produced by Mayfield.
Mayfield's first solo album, Curtis, was released in 1970, and hit the top 20, as well as being a critical success. It pre-dated Marvin Gaye's album, What's Going On, to which it has been compared in addressing social change. The commercial and critical peak of his solo career came with Super Fly, the soundtrack to the blaxploitation Super Fly film, which topped the Billboard Top LPs chart and sold more than 12 million copies. Because of the tendency of these blaxploitation films to glorify the criminal life of dealers and pimps to target a mostly black lower class audience, Mayfield's album set this movie apart. With songs like "Freddie's Dead", a song that focuses on the demise of Freddie, a junkie that was forced into "pushin' dope for the man" because of a debt that he owed to his dealer, and "Pusherman", a song that reveals how many people in the ghetto fell victim to drug abuse, and therefore became dependent upon their dealers, Mayfield illuminated a darker side of life in the ghetto that these blaxploitation films often failed to criticize. However, although Mayfield's soundtrack criticized the glorification of dealers and pimps, he in no way denied that this glorification was occurring. When asked about the subject matter of these films he was quoted stating "I don't see why people are complaining about the subject of these films", and "The way you clean up the films is by cleaning up the streets."
Along with What's Going On and Stevie Wonder's Innervisions, this album ushered in a new socially conscious, funky style of popular soul music. The single releases "Freddie's Dead" and "Super Fly" each sold more than one million copies, and were awarded gold discs by the R.I.A.A.
thumb|left|Mayfield performing for Dutch television in 1972
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 also worked with The Staples Singers on the soundtrack for the 1975 film Let's Do It Again, 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, People Never Give Up, author Peter Burns noted that Mayfield has 140 songs in the Curtom vaults. Burns indicated that the songs were 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", "What's 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 Mayfield, the Impressions, and Jerry Butler) and a live performance, recorded in September 1966 by the Impressions titled Live at the Club Chicago.
In 1982, Mayfield decided to move to Atlanta with his family, closing down his recording operation in Chicago.