Curtis Curtis Mayfield

It’s been nearly 50 years since Curtis Mayfield released his debut solo album, Curtis, and to commemorate the occasion just a tiny bit early…

In honour of the legendary Curtis Mayfield, his first four studio albums are to be released in the new boxset Keep on Keeping on: Curtis Mayfield Studio albums 1970-1974 all newly remastered, marking the 50 years since Mayfield’s Prolific Solo Career came to Start.

The Soul And Songs Of Young Curtis Mayfield chronicles the rapid growth of the young Black “Gentle Genius” who would leave a lasting mark on American music. Featuring tracks from The Impressions, Jerry Butler, Gene Chandler, and more, this compilation showcases Mayfield's recording, producing, and songwriting journey at Vee-Jay Records. The audio has been remastered from the original analog tapes by Paul Blakemore and the package includes new liner notes from noted rock historian Jim Miller.

Super Fly is the third studio album by American soul musician Curtis Mayfield. 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. This album is one of the few soundtracks to out-gross the film it accompanied. In 2003, the album was ranked number 69 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Curtis Harding's new album „Face Your Fear“ is out October 27. New York Magazine already named the forthcoming album one of their most anticipated fall releases lauding Harding’s “scorching voice” while Clash UK hails recent new track “On and On” as “a blistering slice of dancefloor soul that recalls prime Curtis Mayfield and late 60s Motown.” The new album follows 2014’s Soul Power, on which Rolling Stone called Harding an “artist you need to know.”

At this point in their respective careers, Kanye West and Jay-Z don't have anything else to prove. They're already iconic megastars of the highest order, with an endless array of classics that rekindle an interest in Annie and Ray Charles, blurring the lines between rap's underground affinities and pop music's robust stadium sound. They are full-fledged stunt men, focused more on preserving their own monetary interests than advancing the hip hop culture. Therefore, one shouldn't expect the second coming of Run-DMC on Watch the Throne, even if Otis Redding's and Curtis Mayfield's disembodied voices inject dashes of soul into the otherwise glossy project. These rappers have lots of money, lavish tastes and the world at their collective feet. They want you to rejoice and be glad in it.

The Liverpool Five is one 1960s band that is ripe for rediscovery. The fact that they've slipped through a few cracks may have to do with their odd history – after starting out in England, the quintet spent most of a year in Germany and touring the Far East and effectively became an American group just as their recording history began in a serious way.

Led by the legendary Ronald Isley on lead vocals and the album's main producer/arranger Carlos Santana on lead guitar, rhythm guitar, percussion and background vocals, Power of Peace covers songs first made familiar by the Chambers Brothers ("Are You Ready", "Love, Peace, Happiness"), Swamp Dogg ("Total Destruction to Your Mind"), Stevie Wonder ("Higher Ground"), Billie Holiday ("God Bless the Child"), Eddie Kendricks ("Body Talk"), Curtis Mayfield ("Gypsy Woman"), Muddy Waters/Willie Dixon ("I Just Want to Make Love to You"), Dionne Warwick/Jackie DeShannon ("What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love"), Marvin Gaye ("Mercy Mercy Me - The Ecology"), Leon Thomas ("Let the Rain Fall on Me") and Sy Miller and Jill Jackson ("Let There Be Peace on Earth"). Power of Peace also premieres a new song, "I Remember", written and sung by Cindy Blackman Santana.

"Though she'd already been hailed as the Queen of Soul for her run of sultry '60s hits for Atlantic, Aretha Franklin split her time in the '70s between explorations of her gospel roots and flirtations with the pop mainstream, often with diminishing results.