Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer, and one of the most influential musicians behind soul and politically conscious African-American music. Dubbed the "Gentle Genius", he first achieved success and recognition with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted group the Impressions during the civil rights movement of the late 1950s and the 1960s, and later worked as a solo artist.
Super Fly is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield, released on July 11, 1972 on Curtom Records. It was released as the soundtrack for the Blaxploitation film of the same name. Widely considered a classic of 1970s soul and funk music, Super Fly was a nearly immediate hit. Its sales were bolstered by two million-selling singles, "Freddie's Dead" and the title track. Super Fly is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied.
Chicago soul is a style of soul music that arose during the 1960s in Chicago. Along with Detroit, the home of Motown, and Memphis, with its hard-edged, gritty performers, Chicago and the Chicago soul style helped spur the album-oriented soul revolution of the early 1970s.
Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer, keyboardist, songwriter, backing vocalist, and arranger who Rolling Stone described as a "soul legend". His most popular songs include "The Ghetto", "This Christmas", "Someday We'll All Be Free", and "Little Ghetto Boy". Hathaway is also renowned for his renditions of "A Song for You", "For All We Know", and "I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know", along with "Where Is the Love" and "The Closer I Get to You", two of many collaborations with Roberta Flack. He has been inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame and won one Grammy Award from four nominations. Hathaway was also posthumously honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Dutch director David Kleijwegt made a documentary called Mister Soul – A Story About Donny Hathaway, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam on January 28, 2020.
Buddah Records was an American record label founded in 1967 in New York City. The label was born out of Kama Sutra Records, an MGM Records-distributed label, which remained a key imprint following Buddah's founding. Buddah handled a variety of music genres, including bubblegum pop, folk rock (Melanie), experimental music, and soul.
The Impressions were an American music group originally formed in 1958. Their repertoire includes gospel, R&B, doo-wop, and soul.
Curtom Records was a record label founded by Curtis Mayfield and Eddie Thomas in March 1968 as an independently distributed music label. It was located at 8541 South Stony Island Boulevard. The name of the label came from a hybrid of the names "Curtis" and "Thomas". Prior to Curtom, Mayfield had started two other labels: Windy C and Mayfield which both had closed down. The company's motto was "We're a Winner", taken from one the hit songs from Mayfield's group The Impressions released by ABC Records. At the inception, Mayfield was the company principal producer and A&R person. Other staff included Johnny Pate and Donny Hathaway. Pate left in 1972. Most of the artists on Curtom did not write their own music, which lead to the studio producers such as LeRoy Hutson, Lowrell Simon, Ed Townsend, Gil Askey and Marvin Yanch and Chuck Jackson to produce and write music. The first release on Curtom was This Is My Country released in 1968.
There's No Place Like America Today is the seventh studio album by Curtis Mayfield, released in 1975 on Curtom Records. It peaked at number 120 on the Billboard 200 chart, as well as number 13 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
Curtis/Live! is Curtis Mayfield’s first live album, after leaving The Impressions. Originally released in May 1971 as a double LP on Mayfield's Curtom label, the album's 16 tracks — along with Mayfield's interstitial raps on the politics of the day — were recorded at Paul Colby's 230 seater Bitter End nightclub in New York City. According to John Abbey, who at the beginning of the 1970s was editor of the UK magazine Blues & Soul, Mayfield and his band's first set at a Bitter End date in January 1971 comprised the bulk of the music presented here. Mixed primarily with Eddie Kramer at Electric Lady Studios, the album features Master Henry Gibson playing percussion, Craig McMullen on rhythm guitar, Joseph "Lucky" Scott on bass, and Tyrone McCullen on drums.
Got to Find a Way is a studio album by Curtis Mayfield, released in 1974 under Curtom Records. It peaked at number 76 on the Billboard 200 chart, as well as number 17 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart.
A Piece of the Action is a soundtrack album by American rhythm and blues and gospel singer Mavis Staples, from the 1977 film of the same name. It was released on October 10, 1977, by Curtom Records.
Claudine is a Gladys Knight & the Pips album, written and produced by Curtis Mayfield. The disc is the soundtrack album for the 1974 20th Century Fox motion picture Claudine, starring James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll. The album was released in March 1974 on the Buddah label.
Give, Get, Take and Have is a studio album by Curtis Mayfield, released in 1976 under Curtom Records. The track "P.S. I Love You" was later featured in the film Superbad and on its accompanied soundtrack.
This Is My Country is an album by the soul group the Impressions, released in 1968. It was their first album released on Curtis Mayfield's label, Curtom Records.
"Master" Henry Gibson was an American percussionist with an extensive career and discography spanning four decades, best known for his work with Curtis Mayfield.
Leroy Hutson is an American soul and R&B singer, songwriter, arranger, producer and instrumentalist, best known as former lead singer of R&B vocal group The Impressions.
The Natural Four was an American R&B group from Oakland, California that played from 1967 to 1976.
Everything Is Everything is the debut studio album by American soul artist Donny Hathaway, which was released on July 1, 1970 on the Atlantic Records' subsidiary, Atco.
Love Oh Love is the debut solo album by Leroy Hutson, who had been the lead singer of The Impressions after he replaced former lead singer Curtis Mayfield, who left the group to embark on his own solo recording career in 1970. The photography was by Joel Brodsky. The album was the first release by Hutson on Mayfield's Curtom record label.
Hutson is the third album recorded by R&B singer Leroy Hutson on Curtis Mayfield's Curtom record label. The album was to become the start of a creative peak for Hutson, and together with Feel The Spirit and Hutson II, marked him as one of Soul music's most talented and engaging artists.
