Artist: Curtis Mayfield
Title: Mayfield: Remixed -The Curtis Mayfield Collection
Genre: Soul-Funk-R & B
Label: Rhino Records
Curtis Mayfield left us in 1999 to be at the side of our heavenly father. What he left behind was an incredibly powerful legacy of music and words that can apply to everyday life today just as it did when people first heard it. His music is relevant and this collection revisits some of the biggest hits with a slightly different slant.
On this disc, some of the best mixers in the business give the hits of Mayfield the club-dub treatment. The effect is hypnotic and at the same time puts a different modern spin on the tracks. “Superfly” and “Freddie’s Dead” sound wonderful. I remember hearing them on a regular basis on the radio when I was a child.
Back then, I had no idea what the music was about, today I can hear loud and clear that Mayfield was speaking to an audience that felt like he did. Folks concerned with war, drug abuse, and the difficulties that black Americans had to battle in the inner cities could understand what he was trying to convey through his art form. It is a different world today but we still have many of the same issues degrading our society, its just more complex now. It would do us all good to listen again to the message that Mayfield had. He was a pioneer in many ways, his music was groundbreaking in the funk and soul genre and he did not bend his values or his heartfelt beliefs for the opportunity to cash in.
Most of this album was enjoyable and some of it was a bit too much. Too much tweaking and fiddling with a song removes the heart of what it was intended to do in the first place, “Pusherman” is a good example of this; with sprinkles of hip-hop flavorings, there is too much of the mixing aspect that prevails. “People Get Ready,” an all time classic tune, loses some of its appeal as well.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
MM,
If the site doesn't explode, this is the seocnd album I'm going to buy through Bc today. (the other is Tori)
I launched this on the world - or at least the part of the world that scours Advance.net for the (family-friendly) cream of the BC Web log.
Here's the link. Sorry here.
- Thanks. Temple
2 - Temple Stark
MM,
If the site doesn't explode, this is the seocnd album I'm going to buy through Bc today. (the other is Tori)
I launched this on the world - or at least the part of the world that scours Advance.net for the (family-friendly) cream of the BC Web log.
Here's the link. Sorry here.
- Thanks. Temple
3 - Temple Stark
By the way .. I've been meaning to say - I did buy this and the first Supafly song was great but it ultimately was too slow fo rme. A lot of fiddling with the original lyrics and styles for little gain.
Of course, I also have no connection to these songs growing up so ...
7 and 9 were great though