Johnny Pate

Jazz bassist, producer & arranger (born Dec, 5 - 1923 - Chicago Heights, Illinois).
Johnny Pate is a graduate of Bloom High School, in Chicago Heights, Illinois. He produced all of the singles released by The Mighty Marvelows (also from Chicago Heights, Illinois) including In The Morning / I Do. Working for ABC Records, he spent significant time working with B.B. King, Gene Chandler, June Conquest, and most notably Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions.
The partnership between Johnny Pate and Curtis Mayfield has been one of the most prolific musical collaborations of the past century. The Impressions, alone, released 46 singles on, most of which were written by Curtis Mayfield and produced or arranged by Johnny Pate. The two also collaborated on Curtis Mayfield's label,; the most notable product of this partnership was the soundtrack to the 1972 film, Super Fly (The Original Motion Picture Soundtrack). An immediate hit, Super Fly is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.