Curtis Mayfield, who died on December 26th 1999, aged 57, had one of the most achingly expressive voices in black music. His high tenor delivered some of the most significant soul music of the 1960s, and then took on a grittier edge in the 1970s as he moved, alongside Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, in the vanguard of black musicians giving voice to social and political concerns.
He was also a songwriter, producer and guitarist of distinction, whose influence crossed the barriers of popular music styles.
He was born into a musical family on the north side of Chicago, where his grandmother was a leader of The Traveling Soul Spiritual Church. He made his vocal debut as a member of a gospel group, The Northern Jubilee Singers. While his later songs were resolutely secular, he always acknowledged the influence of religious music on his work.
He took up the guitar at the age of 10, citing as his earliest influences the Chicago blues star Muddy Waters and the Spanish virtuoso Andreas Segovia. From such disparate sources he developed a highly individual sound, which emphasised the bass strings and electronic effects such as reverb and echo.
As a teenager he formed a musical partnership with singer Jerry Butler, whom he met at a gospel concert. The pair joined the rhythm and blues vocal group The Roosters, which was renamed The Impressions in 1957. At 16 he had his first hit in the American Top 20 with For Your Precious Love; Curtis Mayfield wrote the words, with Butler on lead vocal.
After Butler left, he took over the leadership of The Impressions, which became a trio with tenor Fred Cash and baritone Sam Gooden. He steered them away from the street-corner symphonies of doo-wop into the emotional heart of soul music, with classics like Gypsy Woman, People Get Ready, and the anthem Amen.
People Get Ready was one of several of his songs which mirrored the civil rights messages of Martin Luther King and others. So also did We're A Winner, a song many radio stations refused to play because of its overt political content.
In 1968 he put into practice his belief in black American self-reliance by forming his own record label, Curtom. He left The Impressions in 1970, although he continued to write and produce for them.
In this new solo career he found inspiration in the changing social and political role of black Americans, which he voiced eloquently in a string of fine albums. This period also produced his biggest British hit single, Move On Up, and the spectacular soundtrack to the abysmal movie Superfly. As in the 1960s, his lyrics continued to reflect the mood of black America, notably on the 1975 album ironically titled There's No Place Like America Today.
During the 1970s he was also in demand as a producer. He worked on albums by Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight and the Pips, and The Staple Singers. In the 1980s, he moved from Chicago to Atlanta to concentrate on live work.
For a time it seemed that his message songs were no longer in tune with the feelings of his community. But as the decade turned, a new generation of rap artists acknowledged his importance, and in 1990 he re-recorded Superfly with the rapper Ice-T.
Tragically, a few months later his career was cut short when a lighting rig fell on him during a concert in Brooklyn. Three vertebrae in his neck were broken and he was left a paraplegic. He recovered enough to make one more album, New World Order. But his condition continued to deteriorate and in 1998 his right leg was amputated as a result of diabetes.
Curtis Mayfield is survived by his wife Altheida, and 10 children.
Curtis Mayfield: born 1942; died December 1999