Curtis/Live! is Curtis Mayfield’s first live album, after leaving The Impressions. Originally released in May 1971 as a double LP on Mayfield's Curtom label (distributed through Neil Bogart's Buddah Records), the album's 16 tracks — along with Mayfield's interstitial raps on the politics of the day — were recorded at Paul Colby's 230 seater Bitter End nightclub in New York City. According to John Abbey, who at the beginning of the 1970s was editor of the UK magazine Blues & Soul, Mayfield and his band's first set at a Bitter End date in January 1971 comprised the bulk of the music presented here. Mixed primarily with Eddie Kramer at Electric Lady Studios, the album features Master Henry Gibson playing percussion, Craig McMullen on rhythm guitar, Joseph "Lucky" Scott on bass, and Tyrone McCullen on drums.

Release

Curtis/Live! was released in May 1971.

Reception

The album was poorly received by Jon Landau when first released; in a contemporary review for Rolling Stone magazine, Landau felt that Mayfield was "confusing his strengths with his weaknesses", and was writing pretentious and embarrassing lyrics, and that his high voice didn't work well when singing solo. Retrospective reviews have been more enthusiastic: Bruce Eder for Allmusic asserting it is "one of the greatest concert albums ever cut on a soul artist, and one of the legendary live albums of all time".

Track listing

All songs written by Curtis Mayfield except where noted.

Personnel

Chart positions

Billboard Music Charts (North America) - album

Influence

Paul Weller, a long-standing fan of Mayfield's work, named the album as "one of his ten all-time favorites" in a 1992 interview with the Record Collector magazine. Rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West sampled the live version of "The Makings of You" on the deluxe track "The Joy" from their 2011 collaboration album Watch the Throne.