courtesy of The Buddah Group - Curtis Mayfield Story intro page
Listen to the PowerhouseRadio.com production of The Curtis Mayfield Story featuring Curtis
10 minutes, 13 seconds
The circumstances that brought Curtis Mayfield into his singing career, the flow of events that resulted in the creation of The Impressions, sound, in retrospect at least, like fateful moves on a large-scale board game.
The game is set in the city of Chicago, where Curtis was born, June of 1942. Events started converging in the year 1956, shortly after fourteen year old Curtis and his family moved to Chicago's North Side.
Curtis had left behind him on the West Side a group of his own called the Alphatones, but his new neighbor was Jerry Butler, several years older and an old friend from the time Jerry sang with a group in the church Curtis' grandmother headed.
Butler's gospel group had, coincidentally, relocated themselves on the West Side of town and both he and Curtis were finding it difficult to commute crosstown to hang out and rehearse with their own groups.
About the same time, three fellas from Chattanooga, Tennessee, moved into Chicago's North Side.
Continued
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