General Background

Known as: artist, producer, composer label owner and symbol for Black Pride and Black Capitalism within the music industry

Born: June 3, 1942

Location of birth: Chicago, Illinois

Passed on: December 29, 1999

Location of passing: Roswell, Georgia

Key Highlights:- 1956: Met Jerry Butler and later formed the Impressions in

1957

- 1970: Embarked on a solo career

Early Musical Influence

Music career before his teen years:

- Began singing at age seven

- he taught himself to play guitar at eight

- led his own gospel and soul group, the Alphatones

- began composing and writing lyrics

- Toured with Chicago gospel outfit, the Northern Jubilee Singers

Early Life and the Impressions

- Formed the impressions with Jerry Butler and a motley crew drawn from different doo-wop groups

- At 16, Mayfield become the band’s de facto head after then-lead singer Butler left to go solo

- In July of 1961 they recorded gold-selling “Gypsy Woman” for ABC-Paramount

- Mayfield was only 18 when the group signed with ABC-Paramount- was the beginning of Mayfield’s seven-year string of composing popular R&B hits.

- 1961: Mayfield wrote “Gypsy Woman”- 1963: group recorded “It’s All Right,”

- Was Chicago’s Okeh Records one-man hit machine, writing and/or producing a parade of chart toppers

Solo Career- Announced departure from the Impressions in 1970 and began solo career in 1971

- Viewed as a contemporary preacher through music and offered perspectives of the American scene and oppressed people

- A New York Times music critic said of his first solo album, “He sings in a breathlessly high, pure voice, breaking his phrases into speech-like patterns, his rhythms pushed by the urgency of his thought”

- The 1972 movie, Superfly, launch Mayfield’s successful career writing soundtracks for films

- Mayfield has a particular influence on a new generation of listeners. His anti-drug messages fit well and were often used by young black filmmakers

The Impressions Reunion

■ Original members of the Impressions, came back together for a reunion tour in 1983

■ Played 1960’s Impressions hit songs and Butler and Mayfield solo hits

■ As reviewed by Robert Palmer in the New York Times, the performances “amounted to a capsule history of recent black popular music, from the slick doo-wop and grittier gospel-based vocal group styles of the 1950s to Mr. Butler’s urbane pop-soul, Curtis Mayfield’s soul message songs and later funk, and the styles the Impressions have tackled as a group.”

Career Conclusion- Outstanding comeback year in 1990

- Released album Take It to the Streets and promoted it on tour in the U.S., Europe and Japan

- Capital Records released The Return of Superfly, a rap sample featuring four of Mayfield’s songs

- Involved in an accident that paralyzed him from the neck down

- Various artists including, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, Lenny Kravitz, the Isley Brothers, and Bruce Springsteen, got together to put out a tribute album in honor of the great Curtis Mayfield.

- Mayfield even got back in the studio to record, “All Men Are Brothers”, for the tribute album.

- Passed away of natural causes in his Georgia home

Awards and Achievements- 1961: Mayfield wrote their gold-selling “Gypsy Woman”

- 1963: group recorded “It’s All Right,” which Robert Pruter of Chicago Soul termed “the first single to define the classic style of the 1960s Impressions.”

- Wrote/produced a parade of chart toppers for the likes of Major Lance (“The Monkey Time”), Gene Chandler (“Nothing Can Stop Me”), Billy Butler (“I Can’t Work No Longer”), and others for Chicago’s OKeh Records

- Two top-ten hit singles resulted from the soundtrack: “Freddie’s Dead” and “Superfly

- Impressions were nominated for a Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

- Donated $100,000 to start the Curtis Mayfield Research Fund at Miami Project to Cure Paralysis

- Was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 for his solo recordings