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Keep On Pushing: Curtis Mayfield

Chris Salewicz, The Face, August 1983

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?

Total word count of piece: 2275

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