Keep On Pushing: Curtis Mayfield

They were still calling it ‘race music’ when Curtis Mayfield started singing in the late ‘50s. An influential and innovative artist, Mayfield gave a stirring call to rising ghetto militancy and went on to create a unique body of work, strong in polemic, subtle in mood, sublime in its musical sophistication — yet all but drowned in the onslaught of the disco sound that he helped to shape. What can humble genius do except keep on keeping on?