Curtis

About

As the leader of The Impression, R&B polymath Curtis Mayfield had been redefining the sound of Chicago soul for more than a decade by the time his debut, <i>Curtis</i>, arrived in 1970. It’s a landmark album from a transformative era in Black pop, released not long before Sly and the Family Stone’s <i>There’s a Riot Goin’ On</i> and Marvin Gaye’s <i>What’s Going On</i>. The seeds of <i>Curtis</i> were planted back in 1968, when Mayfield—in an effort to gain total creative freedom—launched his own record label, which he named Curtom. As the guiding force behind the company, Mayfield served as a songwriter and producer for such acts as the Five Stairstep, Donny Hathaway, Baby Huey, and Major Lance, all the while continuing to front The Impression. But when the 1970s arrived, bringing with it the dawn of the singer-songwriter movement, Mayfield decided to go solo with <i>Curtis</i>, the album that would mark a dividing line in Mayfield’s life and music. Fully freed from the vocal and melodic template he’d established with The Impression, <i>Curtis</i> allowed the singer to explore new musical and lyrical vista. The album’s eight tracks are built on complex polyrhythms and dramatic guitar effect, and fed by the turbulence of the times: Mayfield had been inspired by the 1969 assassination of Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton, and frustrated by what the singer saw as the engineered destruction of the urban ghetto due to drug, violence, and neglect. Nowhere is that sense of doom more powerful than on the album’s opening track, “(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going To Go.” As a female voice reads from the Book of Revelation, Mayfield warns of the coming social and spiritual apocalypse that will spare no one (despite the song's intensity, it became an R&B hit). But that's just one of several striking tracks on <i>Curtis</i>, which also includes “The Other Side of Town”—a study of social segregation—and the dramatic “We the People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” which examines inter-Black relations: “Shall we commit our own genocide/Before you check out your mind?” Mayfield asks at one point. Even as his message became more strident and focused, Mayfield moved the music in manifold direction, showcasing his total mastery—not just of soul, gospel, and jazz, but of funk and psychedelia as well. .

via Apple Music

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