ESSENTIAL ALBUMS: (#11) : Curtis Mayfield - Superfly (1972)

Chicago native Curtis Mayfield became a fixture on the U.S. soul scene in 1961, when his vocal harmony group The Impressions began their run of evergreen chart hits. He embarked on a solo career in 1970, enlivening dance floors everywhere with the euphoric "Move On Up" (from debut LP Curtis). The signature sound was lush yet funky, a deftly orchestrated mélange of guitar, fluttering strings, majestic brass, and fluid rhythms. The icing on the cake was his silky falsetto, which often gilded searing commentaries about urban America.

Superfly was Mayfield's only No. 1 album, a soundtrack to the popular blaxploitaton film that neatly denounced the very things the movie was in danger of glorifying. The symphonic, minor-key "Little Child Runnin' Wild" paints a foreboding portrait of inner city life, its dramatic crescendos giving way to "Pusherman". Built around a mesmerizing bassline springloaded with congas, this first-person piece of street-level reportage anticipates gangsta rap; it was sampled by Ice-T on his 1988 song "I'm Your Pusher". The sweeping, Latin- flavored "No Thing On Me (Cocaine Song)" is another powerful anti-drug statement, but the big singles were "Freddie's Dead"—a poignant, flute-driven character sketch that reached No. 4—and the deceptively suave title track (a No. 8).

 

Mayfield never matched this commercial high, though 1975's There's No Place Like America Today is an overlooked gem. 

Tragedy struck in August 1990, when he was paralyzed from the neck down after a lighting rig fell on him. This gentle giant of twentieth century music died on December 26, 1999, aged 57.