‘The Makings of Curtis Mayfield’ Review: an irresistible celebration

Early in “The entries of Curtis Mayfield‘Her, the 27-year-old R&B popster who directed the film and appears in it as his interviewer and guide, offers a meaningful observation on her subject. “Curtis Mayfield,” she explains, “is one of the greatest of all time. And people don’t agree.”

I agree with her on both points. We come in an instant at the best of all the time, if you don’t know much about Curtis Mayfield and want to cut to the pursuit why he was one of the best, I would recommend just going to YouTube and making the nine-minute album version of “Move Up”, which is perhaps his most extraordinary song (although there is a lot of competition). It is built around one of those grooves that is really epic and really transports: the synchronized horns, the dancing bass, the rapidly flumbling guitar that you only register half (although it is in the mixed stock in a Gumbo, the high violins for that touch of romance in a new one of that, Mayfield of a Mayfid, Mayfield of a Mayfid of a Mayfid of a Mayfid of a Mayfid, Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield from a Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield from a Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield of a Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield, Mayfield. a message from a message from a message from a message from a message from a message from a message in one way or another. Three small chordsAs if it was in his very harmonics between the tragedy of the past and the promise of the future. It is simply one of the best songs ever recorded.

But if that is the case, why are people not even? Curtis Mayfield was not an obscure figure. He was a star of his time, winning acclaim and popular success, first with the impressions, his honey-so-samh motown-adjacent vocal trio of the 60s (Their 1965 Single “People Get Ready” Was Named by Martin Luts tea, As tea, as tea. Theen tea. Theen’s tea. Theen’s tea. Theen’s Cthement, as tea orthe’s, Asthe Crementts, as tea. solo artist in the ’70s, when he put out several albums that are stone classics, notably his 1970 debut, “Curtis,” en de soundtrack van 1972 naar “Super Fly”, een van de meest onuitwisbare van alle filmsoundtracks (zoals de muziek voor “Saturday Night Fever”, het is praktisch een film op zichzelf – en, als er iets is, een betere Then film “Super Fly”).

Yet I think what really means her is that if Curtis Mayfield is recognized as a great artist, he is not considered, as he should be, like one giant. As a pioneer of the sound and the atmosphere of the 70s whose influence was impossible. The documentary makes the essential point that ‘Curtis’, an album that was shot by the social protest, was released before Marvin Gaye’s’ What’s Going On’, SLY and the Family Stone’s’ There a Riot Goin ‘On’ or Stevie Wonder’s’ Innvervions’ Protest. Rolling stone Recently opted for “what is going on” if the biggest record of all time, and whether you agree with it or not (there is a little room for debate there), I would claim that “Curtis” is an even more transcendent album. That is the level of satisfaction we are talking about.

And that does not start to measure how Mayfield’s Soul-Funk imagination cast his shadow over such inautable sounds as the lush romantic melancholy of Philadelphia Soul (which I would say he presented the table), the percolating elegance of Chic, or the Falsetto recording of Prince. And although Mayfield chose not to try not to become a disco artist, his flavors are all about disco.

So why is it not thought of in free that more than life -sized terms? “The Makings of Curtis Mayfield” is not like other music documents – it is structured as a series of conversations between her and a handful of the musicians and artists who carry the influence of the genius of Mayfield (Dr. Dre, Maxwell, Mary J. Blige, John Legend and others). Yet the film has many of the archive images of Mayfield you want to see: concert clips, performances on “Soul Train” and “Hullabaloo”, interviews. And what happens is the fascinating way in which his look and persona simply did not fit in the image of a revolutionary music star.

Sly Stone and Prince and Jimi Hendrix were extremely looking people; That was part of their mysticism. Smokey Robinson was as beautiful as his voice, and there was a poetry for that. Curtis Mayfield was short, with a rabbit grin and small rectangular thread-Frisse glasses that hung halfway through his nose. He looked cute and brain, like a soul brother version of Bob Balaban, instead of sexy and swaggery. His appearance, in a funny way, did not match the voice that came out.

He was in fact one of the few singers from his era with a rising falsetto croon that could compete Smokey Robinson’s. He sometimes sounded like he was heading stylistics. But he also had a unique quality that Maxwell indicates in the documentary, to sound like he was talking straight to you as he sang. His conversation style in interviews has been spoken and softly spoken, almost professional, which is the memorandum of insist Just below the vocal beauty of Angel Cake. That is what his texts on social protest gave such a personal dimension. If you listen to ‘Freddie’s Dead’, from ‘Super Fly’, he seems to be talking about a real person, and the song comes out as an elegy for so many Freddies – the junkies and the hustlers, innocent in their despair, that ‘pushin’ dope was for the man ‘(an expression of a system, in four words). The rising lyricism of Mayfield is glowing, but he still sings the message like a Clarion call.

“The Makings of Curtis Mayfield” shines through the career of Mayfield with an agile perception of the most important moments, of the record label that he launched in Chicago in the late 60s to the way the soundtrack “Super Fly” was released for the film, making it the success of the latter. There are times when you wanted the film to have more of the rock-solid information that is the heart and soul of most music documents. (I was surprised when I learned – not from the film – that Mayfield had 10 children.) And there are times when her conversation method never has a momentum.

That said, what I miss in too many music documentaries is a deep critical appreciation from the artist in question. And that is what brings her to this film in abundance. The Exchanges She Leads, Often With Musical Instruments On Hand Or (In The Case Of Dre Is his favorite album of all time, or stephen marley discussing Mayfield’s Influence on his father Bob Marley, or Ernie Isley demonstrating What a Visionary Guitar player Mayfield was whether Mary J. Blige explained that “Curtis Mayfield wax The soundtrack for inner -city living. ‘He was of course sampled on a large scale by the hip -hop artists who worshiped him.

The film confronts the devastating accident that took place on August 13, 1990, when Mayfield, when he was introduced during a concert in Flatbush, Brooklyn, was struck by a falling lighting tower that left him down from the neck. He was able to keep putting together and singing, and we see a clip of him who discussed this tragedy with moving similarity. Hij stierf in 1999, op 57, aan complicaties van diabetes type 2. Maar hoe spookachtig het laatste hoofdstuk van zijn leven was, stuurt de film ons op een hoge noot en snijdt onder zijn all-star interviewonderwerpen terwijl elk luistert naar en verwondert over, “Pusherman”, zijn geweldige funk track van “Super Fly”, een lied dat bijna romanistiek is in de binnen-street-life Menace en Snap. No artist of that time has ever connected you more nicer to what is going on.