Born in Chicago in 1942, Curtis Mayfield grew into a brilliant musical multi-hyphenate: guitarist-singer-songwriter-composer-producer-label founder. Mayfield achieved immortality authoring, recording, and performing a series of timely hits hailing and cheering on Black Americans’ struggle for freedom and equality. As a teen, Mayfield sang in a choir in his hometown of north Chicago with fellow musical multi-hyphenate Jerry Butler. Mayfield and Butler then joined a doo-wop group, The Roosters, which, by the time the group hit with 1958’s “For Your Precious Love,” had rebranded as Jerry Butler & The Impressions. When Butler left to go solo, Mayfield assumed leadership of The Impressions and relocated the group from Chicago to New York City. The Impressions scored a hit in 1961 with the Mayfield-penned “Gypsy Woman,” followed by “It’s All Right” and “Amen,” the latter a high spot in the Sidney Poitier film “Lilies of the Field.” In 1964, inspired by the civil rights movement, Mayfield wrote “Keep on Pushing,” then the towering “People Get Ready”—ranked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame among the 500 songs that shaped the form and later charting as a cover by Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. Mayfield went solo in 1970, having founded Curtom Records as a home for the Impressions and his own and other artists’ projects. His 1970 solo debut Curtis marked a sonic shift toward progressive and psychedelic soul and features the burning nine-minute extended version of “Move On Up.” In 1972, Mayfield released the megahit soundtrack Super Fly, which made “Freddy’s Dead” a grassroots sensation and enduring standards of “Pusherman” and the title track. In total, Mayfield produced 23 solo studio, live, and soundtrack albums over the course of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1990 an onstage accident paralyzed Mayfield from the neck down. Even so, he continued to write and record. His final LP was 1996’s New World Order. He is a double inductee in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Curtis Mayfield passed away in 1999. – Michael Dolan

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