July 21, 2012 3:02 PM
ET
By Mike Rubin
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/tv-on-the-radio-mavis-staples-sinead-oconnor-and-questlove-gather-to-honor-curtis-mayfield-20120721
William Bell Performs 70th Birthday Tribute to Curtis Mayfield
Excuse the potential blasphemy, but
if God has a singing voice, He would probably sound like Curtis
Mayfield. The late Chicago soul singer and songwriter possessed a
gospel-trained falsetto that was one of pop music’s most angelic, an instrument
that even for the secular among us seemed a manifestation of the divine. An
incisive lyricist, Mayfield was one of the first R&B artists to infuse his
work with socio-political commentary. His blend of social consciousness and
spiritual harmonies became a crucial soundtrack to the civil rights struggle
throughout the 1960s (when he led the Chicago vocal trio the Impressions,
responsible for standards like "Gypsy Woman," "It’s
Alright," "I’m So Proud," "Keep On Pushing," and
"People Get Ready") and into the 1970s, where a successful solo
career was punctuated by his electrifying soundtrack to the film Superfly,
featuring such funk classics as "Pusherman," "Freddie’s
Dead," and the title track. Relatively small in physical stature, he was a
true musical giant who passed away far too young at age 57 in 1999, never
having fully recovered from a tragic 1990 accident when a lighting tower fell
on him during a Brooklyn concert and left him paralyzed from the neck down.
In honor of what would have been
Mayfield’s 70th year, the Lincoln Center Festival commissioned "Here But
I’m Gone," a tribute concert featuring an all-star roster of vocalists –
including the surviving Impressions, 77-year-old Sam Gooden and 71-year-old
Fred Cash – performing in front of a crack big band of more than 18 musicians
(replete with bountiful horn and string sections and Dr. Lonnie Smith on
Hammond B3 organ). Under the musical direction of Binky Griptite, the guitarist
of Brooklyn retro-soul outfit the Dap-Kings, the house band infused the musty
oldies-revue format – now a familiar PBS pledge-drive staple – with an
irresistible energy that caused most in the building to dance in their seats
(and even had a tuxedoed Avery Fisher Hall usher unable to stop himself singing
"People Get Ready" as he moved down the aisle). Musically there was
barely a false note over the entire course of the evening, aside from the
curious omission of "Superfly." One could quibble that, sure,
Impressions current lead singer Reggie Torian’s falsetto wasn’t quite the equal
to Mayfield’s, but it hardly seems fair to compare a mere man to a soul
immortal. Indeed, the show’s only real stumble was sartorial: On a night
resplendent with flashy matching suits for the old-timers and hep blazers and
porkpies for the younger cats, TV On the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and Kyp Malone
apparently didn’t get the dress-code tweet and performed their version of
"Kung Fu" in less-than-kickin’ t-shirts.
Keeping with Mayfield’s activist
spirit, Mavis Staples interrupted her rendition of "This Is My
Country" to offer some political commentary of her own. "What’s up
with these folks going around denigrating our president?" she asked the
cheering crowd. "Saying that he’s not a legal resident?" Referring to
the signs of Tea Party protesters proclaiming "We’re Gonna Take Our
Country Back," she remarked, "Back to where? The Fifties? The
Sixties? I ain’t never going back to the back of the bus! Never!"
In addition to R&B veterans like
Staples and fellow Stax alum William Bell, the concert featured a mix of
neo-soul stalwarts like Meshell Ndegeocello, Aloe Blacc and Bilal (whose
version of "Give Me Your Love" was a standout) with impressive
newcomers like Ryan Montbleau (who delivered a husky take on "Here But I’m
Gone") and Inyang Bassey (who shone throughout "We the People Who Are
Darker Than Blue"). Sinéad O’Connor, sporting a priest’s clerical shirt
and collar with camouflage pants, transformed two of Mayfield’s somewhat lesser
known mid-1970s compositions, "Jesus" and "Billy Jack,"
into the most rousing performances of the night. Her eyes hidden by shades and
her skull freshly shaven, she rocked from side to side with an Eminem-like
intensity, her soaring vocals spurring the crowd to leap to their feet. Soon
they were banging their heads, courtesy of an apocalyptically incendiary
version of "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Below, We're All Going to
Go" performed by the Roots drummer Questlove, guitarist
"Captain" Kirk Douglas, and tuba player Damon Bryson. With
Questlove’s echo-laden incantations booming between drum fills while Bryson
squawked and Douglas soloed, the song imagined the results of a hypothetical
jam session between Jimi Hendrix and John Philip Sousa. The night
culminated with a revue-style encore, the entire lineup participating in a
collective soul-stirring rendition of "Move On Up," ending the
show with the kind of uplifting note that any true payment of respect to Curtis
Mayfield's positive force certainly demanded.
