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Curtis "Lee" Mayfield & the Impressions

Lee Curtis Mayfield

was born June 3, 1942 in Chicago in a rather poor family. He is attracted by the music very young, and particularly the Gospel (one of his grandmothers was a preacher). At ten, he already wrote his first songs, and he had great admiration for a group of local gospel, the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers , which included three of his cousins, Jerry Butler and some that will be one of the important meetings of his life.

the mid 50's, Curtis Mayfield, then a young teenager, learning the guitar and formed his first band, The ALPHATON . In 1957, Jerry Butler, the former member of the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, suggested he enter as a guitarist in the quintet that he is the lead singer, then named The Roosters . A few months later, the group meets Eddie Thomas, who becomes their manager, the renamed The Impressions, and registered the song For Your Precious Love for Vee Jay Records . Released in 1958, this first record sold 900,000 copies. Two more singles followed, before Butler left the band to pursue his own career.

After his departure, Vee Jay releases the group, which somehow continues to exist by giving concerts. While waiting for better days, Curtis Mayfield makes his living as a guitarist in the group of Butler, and he wrote several songs. With one of them that Butler obtained by November 1960 his first hit, He Will Break Zour Heart .

With a thousand dollars he was able to save, Curtis Mayfield the Impressions takes models registered in New York. This allows them July 61 to sign with ABC Paramount. The first in a long series of successes, Gypsy Woman released this year.

In 63, the band returned to Chicago and earned his biggest hit: "It's All Right", the first R & B charts, 4th of Pop charts ... The 3 singles coming out next year I'm So Proud , Keep On Pushing Amen and maintain the popularity of Impressions. Keep On Pushing is also a time for the rallying song of the Civil Rights Movement of Martin Luther King.

In 1965, the Impressions recorded the song that will make him a legend, People Get Ready . Besides being a great commercial success, it becomes a standard with dozens of artists will resume thereafter.

addition to his role as leader of the Impressions, Curtis Mayfield invests in other activities: he wrote many songs, including several hits for other singers such as Major Lance and Gene Chandler, among others. In 1966 he created the labels Mayfield and Windy C, then 2 years later, a label that would become his trademark, Curtom - a name he had used for his first publishing house in 1960. Among the artists he produced under this label, there are Donnie Hathaway, Linda Clifford and The Jones Girls.

Always driven by his entrepreneurial spirit and its need for autonomy, he decided to start a solo career. He officially announced his departure from the group in August 70, but continues for some time to collaborate on writing and production. Although the break is not complete, however, definitely a page is turned, the Impressions will never recover from this separation ...

The first single under his own name, If There's A Hell Below We're All Going To Go , goes unnoticed long enough. The following Move On Up works very well in England, but also a failure wipes USA. Fortunately, the first album Curtis receives a better reception. It is followed by an album in public, then Roots, released in summer 71.

During this period he was contacted by Phillip Fenty and Sig Shore, respectively screenwriter and film producer. They offered him to write and record music from the film they planned Superfly. This monument of the "Blaxploitation", the vast current African-American cinema of the 70s, brings dedication to Curtis Mayfield, as Shaft did for Isaac Hayes. In 72, the soundtrack has sold more than one million copies and is nominated for 4 Awards. The two singles that are extracted, Freddie's Dead Superfly then, are a great breakthrough in the charts.

After this moment of glory, Curtis Mayfield continues on this path, that is to say, a Soul urban rhythms with funk accents and subtle orchestrations, service Text militants, but full of optimism. Several albums are connected, Back To The World, Sweet Exorcist , Got To Find A Way then There's No Place Like America Today . It also participates in other film music: with Gladys Knight & The Pips for Claudine with The Staple Singers Let's Do It Again with Aretha Flanklin for Sparkle ... But
full wave disco, the public turns away inexorably. After a few more singles, So In Love, Only You Babe , Show Me Love, he takes a role in the film Short Eyes , for which he also wrote the song Do Do Wap Is Strong in Here . Turning 70's / 80's has been wandering, with attempts Disco, duets with Linda Clifford, and several other 45s who can not make him popular.

By 82, he left Chicago and moved to Atlanta and back Curtom, now distributed by Ichiban Records. It runs a lot, mainly in Japan and Europe, and released a few albums that give minor successes as Baby It's You . We can also attend reformations very casual impressions. But success is no longer the rendezvous.

He resurfaced in '89 with two new contributions to the cinema, I'm Gonna Git You Sucker and The Return Of Superfly , followed by 90 for an album, Take It To The Streets , and a promotional tour in Japan, Europe and USA. It is at this moment when Curtis Mayfield seemed to regain the success that comes a tragedy that will destroy all his efforts. In August 90 he participated in an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Brooklyn. For balance, a violent gust of wind brought down a ramp lighting on him. Severely hit in the spine, there is quadriplegic and can not sing. Although he retained all his faculties, and despite an intensive rehabilitation, he fails to regain its means.

His first public appearance since the accident took place in February 91 to mark the creation of Curtis Mayfield Research Fund, for which he donated 100,000 dollars to the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. In Spring 94, many artists, including Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin and Elton John, come together to record an album in tribute to his immense talent All Men Are Brothers: A Tribute To Curtis Mayfield .

By 96, he managed to release a new album, New World Order . His record has been very stressful for him. He had to save the sentences one by one, chanting supine. While living

withdrawn, caring for her family and her label Conquest, Curtis Mayfield died on December 26, 1999 Hospital Roswell (Georgia - USA), at the age of 57.

Curtis Mayfield is one of the few artists who managed to draw up new avenues for the Soul Music. The musical concept he developed in the early 70's contributed to the future direction of Black Music, at a time when Motown had lost its creative forces, and where Stax wasting away of his mismanagement. To understand the scope of his work, we have only noted the many occasions of his songs by artists from all s, Deniece Williams Herbie Hancock, and the number of excerpts from his recordings used on discs of rappers and R & B artists like Mary J. Current Blige.

It is the only artist to have been admitted twice to the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame: once in 91, as a member of the Impressions, and again in 99 for his personal work.