Curtis Mayfield Guitar
July 20, 2012-–
NEW YORK, N.Y.—Went vinyl digging in the rain at Bleecker Street Records and other ports of call before tonight’s Curtis Mayfield Tribute Concert at the Lincoln Center Festival.
Can’t wait to wrap the turntable around the double LP “Super Funk 2” with tracks like “Jelly Roll” by the Granby Street Development and “Monkey In a Sack” by Lil’ Buck & the Top Cats. While scouring the Bleecker basement (with a fat grey cat working the floor), the warm sound of Mayfield’s guitar—one that so perfectly complemented his falsetto—-washed over the room. I bought The Impressions “Check Out Your Mind!” for a new friend.
In a 1993 interview in his home outside of Atlanta, Ga., Mayfield told me he never took guitar lessons. “One of my cousins was drafted into the Army, and his guitar was off in the corner where nobody touched it,” he recalled. “I was around 10 when I finally picked up the guitar. When I strummed across it, it sounded out of tune because it was tuned to Spanish tuning. I subconsciously returned it to the key of F sharp—which was all the black keys on the piano.
“I didn’t know what I had done for years, until I got to the Apollo Theater (here in New York) and found that my (guitar) tuning actually matched the piano. No one has been able to play liked I did. Except for one guy who used to come visit me at Cabrini (housing projects in Chicago). That was Billy Butler (brother of former Impression Jerry Butler).
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