Curtis Mayfield - RIP/Appreciation

pkny

It totally slipped my mind, but today is the 7th anniversary of the passing of the great Curtis Mayfield. The day is almost over, but it's never too late to big up Curtis.Thanks for the beautiful music, Curtis. RIP.

luck

The man IS Chicago. No "was" about it.

drewnice

The best to ever do it. I am continually amazed at the depth of feeling complexity of his productions and am always discovering new meaning in his lyrics.

Rest in peace and thanks for the legacy you have created, Curtis.

pickwick33

It totally slipped my mind, but today is the 7th anniversary of the passing of the great Curtis Mayfield. The day is almost over, but even though we've now done enough Curtis threads to choke a horse[/b], it's never too late to big up Curtis and that's no lie[/b].

If there's a heaven above, then Curtis went!!!

SPlDEY

I have recently been tackling his Mr Mayfields guitar approach. It definitely is giving me a deep respect for his stuff with the Impressions. Much respect to Curtis one of the greatest to ever do it.

- spidey



Hendrix explaining Mayfield's style.

- spidey

drewnice

I have recently been tackling his Mr Mayfields guitar approach. It definitely is giving me a deep respect for his stuff with the Impressions. Much respect to Curtis one of the greatest to ever do it.

- spidey

Out of curiosity, what have you learned from it, technique-wise?

Strider79it

great music from a great man

SPlDEY

Out of curiosity, what have you learned from it, technique-wise?

Without getting all technical his style had a ton of great odd slides, and a rhythm with hammer ons and pull offs approach that is truly the foundation of soul playing. I can still barely use the Open f# tuning effectively, but it's pretty good for doing gospel style 2 finger chords that uses the root note as a drone note.

Probably don't understand what I mean, but Hendrix uses this ALOT. You'd definitely recognize it from his playing.

- spidey

pickwick33

i can definitely hear some curtis in hendrix's playing on the sides he did with the isley bros.

and even after he got psychedelized, the slower songs like "angel" were straight-up curtis

SoulOnIce

A few extras from the 25th Anniversary Superfly 2-disc:






"Ghetto Child" demo





Freddie's Dead instro



awesome radio spot!

Strider79it

they should issue on dvd the concert of Curtis in Chicago, the one with all the member of the "curtom" gang

m_dejean

Re: Curtis' guitar playing.

It's funny, many think of him as a singer/songwriter first (understandable, no doubt) but kind of overlook his guitar playing. Like in the last "Top 10 guitar players" thread we had here, some posters were questioning his relevance on such a list.

His guitar playing was one of the first things I noticed when I first started listening to his records. Very distinct and emotional IMO.

LaserWolf

I am totally learning about his guitar playing here. Open f#? is that the key he likes to sing in. Is it the same as an open E just stepped up? I've always enjoyed his playing, but I also overlooked it like. I always thought of it as 'oh he's in an open tuning so he can easily strum along'.

It seems that many many of the great guitarists use open or straight up unusual tunings. But that is another thread.

Curtis RIP.

rootlesscosmo

GOAT.

kitchenknight

People look at me funny when I say, in all sincerity, that he belongs in the discussion of the great composers of the 20th Century, but I ain't playing. His work as a writer and arranger takes a back seat to NO ONE.

The fact that he and JB died within one day of each other is an interesting coincidence...that two of the great judges of talent, and arrangers of the last century would share those dates is interesting.