Curtis Mayfield to be inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk

Legendary soul, R&B, funk singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, mentor, record producer and social activist Curtis Mayfield will be honored by family, friends and fans when he is posthumously inducted into Hollywood’s RockWalk on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Celebrating 50 years of music, digitally enhanced recordings and video footage will be released this year, paying tribute to Mayfield’s iconic career.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Mayfield’s love for music cultivated singing in his grandmother’s Traveling Soul Spiritualists’ Church on the cities North Side. His career began in 1956 when he joined The Roosters with Arthur and Richard Brooks and Jerry Butler. Two years later, with the addition of Sam Gooden, the group became The Impressions. Mayfield became lead singer when Butler left the group. The Impressions saw success with such songs as “Gypsy Woman,” “Amen,” “Keep on Pushin,” “People Get Ready,” “Choice of Colors,” “Fool For You,” “This is My Country” and “Check Out Your Mind.”

In 1970, Mayfield left The Impressions and began a solo career, founding the independent record label Curtom Records. Curtom was the home for most of Mayfield’s landmark 1970’s records as well as records by The Impressions, The Staple Singers and Mavis Staples, to name a few. His most influential album, Superfly, the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film of the same name, was released in 1972. Mayfield’s lyrics were a hard-hitting commentary on the state of black affairs in black, urban ghettos at the time. This album ushered in a new socially conscious, funky style of popular soul music and was named the 64th most influential album of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine in 2004.

Despite the twist and turns of the music industry over the years, Mayfield went on to work with artists including Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knight and the Pips and lend his producing and writing skills to soundtracks for the movies Claudine, Sparkle, A Piece of Action and Short Eyes. After a tragic accident in 1990 left him paralyzed from the neck down, Mayfield forged ahead continuing to write songs and directing the recording of his last album New World Order, which was painstakingly recorded as he lie on his back enabling him to get enough breath to sing.

Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999, just a few short months before his death. Mayfield died on December 26, 1999 in Rosewell, GA surrounded by his family including his wife of over 30 years, Altheida, and their seven children.

Now, 2008 is shaping up to be the year where this man, known as the Gentle Genius, who produced more than 750 songs in his short music lifetime and whose creativity influenced everyone from Jimi Hendrix to the sampling hip hoppers of our time, will get the respect he has earned and that he deserves.

Hollywood’s RockWalk is the only sidewalk gallery dedicated to honoring those artists who have made a significant impact and lasting contribution to the growth and evolution of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Blues and R&B. Mayfield’s bronze bust will reside alongside the handprints, signatures, and faces of other equally accomplished musicians and innovators such as Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Bonnie Raitt, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Brian Wilson, Stevie Wonder, John Lee Hooker and Earth Wind & Fire among numerous others.