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Jazz Soul Seven: Impressions of Curtis Mayfield
by Edward Blanco
Paying homage to one of the most influential and important artists in the past century, the Jazz Soul Seven collective tips its hat to Curtis Mayfield on Impressions of Curtis Mayfield, an instrumental re-imagining of twelve of the R&B, funk and soul singer's most popular compositions. A voice of African-American pride, Mayfield was a socially-conscious artist who led The Impressions, delivering political musical statement during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Author of many funk and soul compositions during ...
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by C. Michael Bailey
Curtis Mayfield's solo work and his work with the Impressions are highwater marks in popular music, representing the Chicago soul music constituency popular in the 1960s and '70s. His influence is yet to be fully realized or understood today, making his creative corpus a very tantalizing source of material for modern players. Jazz Soul Seven, an all-star septet under the leadership of guitarist Phil Upchurch, pays a fully-realized tribute to the music of Mayfield on Impressions of Curtis Mayfield.
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by Dan Bilawsky
Curtis Mayfield's music has always possessed a certain cachet in soul, funk, R&B, pop and rock circles, but it never fully took hold in jazz until now. Pianist Herbie Hancock had some fun with Mayfield's “Future Shock" on the decades-old album of the same name (Columbia 1983), while other jazz musicians may have occasionally taken a stab at one of his songs; but these were merely blips on the musical radar. It was boundary-pushing bassist William Parker's I Plan To ...
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by Mark F. Turner
While he may not be as recognized as Stevie Wonder or James Brown, Curtis Lee Mayfield left an indelible mark on American popular music as a pioneering instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and R&B producer. His compositions--including the score for the iconic blaxploitation film Super Fly (1972)--are compelling, incorporating the heritage of urban soul and gospel music and providing socially conscious messages--commentaries on the Vietnam War, inner city poverty, drug abuse and the tumultuous struggles of the Civil Rights Movement in the ...
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