Curtis Mayfield as a guitarist

I love his funky falsetto vocals and a lot of his early solo songs, great music and thought-provoking lyrics.
But why is he so highly rated as a guitarist? I read quite a lot of praise for him, but the live footage I saw he always only played chords that did not sound too intricate. Did he play any leads at all?
What are some examples of his best work in this respect?

 

he had such cool little transition licks that were copied by tons and tons of guitarists. a lot of little wing by hendrix owes to his influence.

 

He was mainly an inventive and original rhythm player. I'd say that most of the time anyone emulates his playing style it's through Hendrix, who was the first player in the rock field to play rhythm like Curtis, though he expanded on it and added a lot of finesse not found in the source.

 

When I saw him live he was the only guitarist and he was doing a lot of things with his fingers.
I was about 4ft from where he was sitting and I couldn't work out everything he was doing.
He was doing it brilliantly.

 

Definitely! "Drifting" owes a lot to CM as well.

 

I recall he didn't use standard tuning, which might have made it even harder?

 

If you’ve never seen this footage before, it’s pretty much the greatest thing on YouTube. Great interplay between Curtis and the other guitarist throughout the performance:

 

Here’s Part Two:

 

He might have used different tunings.
I just remember being infront of a living legend enjoying every song.
It was one of the last small UK concerts he played before going home and playing the concert that changed his life for ever.

 

I don't think you have to play wild guitar solos to be a great guitarist, Curtis played beautifully & was definitely a big influence on Jimi Hendrix.

 

A beautiful player whose sliding, gliding licks and little pull off triplets (like you can hear on "Think" from Superfly) set the mold for a lot of R&B guitar (and for rock players like Hendrix who came out of R&B and who often sounds like Mayfield, like all that "Castles Made of Sand" and "Little Wing" stuff is built on the Curtis Mayfield sound). The cliched sliding R&B licks that everyone uses, lots of them came straight from Curtis. Here's one read on Mayfield's impact: Digging Deeper: Curtis Mayfield | Premier Guitar It's section playing, arrangement playing, it's not "leads" in the bravura rock solo sense. A lot of the great Impressions records are pretty highly arranged so you don't necessarily hear it all, but you can hear it on say the Curtis/Live album with the small band from a small club in the early '70s.

 

Yeah open tuning, open F# I think.

 

Big influence on Jimi Hendrix' s playing.

 

Of course you do not have to play solos only, but from what I heard I was not able to find intricate rhytmical parts as well, probably because he was the pioneer and now they are so common in the vocabulary of many players they seem ordinar to mey. I knew about thr influence on Jimi .

Also, to all the others:Any particular lesser known tracks by the Impressions I should check out in terms of guitar playing?

 

Thanks for the tip. Will take a look.

 

Big deal influence on Robbie Robertson as well. A lot of it was touch and taste, feel stuff. It wasn’t difficult stuff, but it worked.

 

Put on Got to Find a Way today after coming across this thread. Awesome album.

This lesson shows you there is more to Curtis' playing than meets the hear.

 

Clapton was influenced as well. I think it's tone too, not just the accents and riffs. The chords played have a tone that is CM.

 

That R&B rhythm/lead style is deceptively simple, and easy to miss if you're a shredding lead guitar fan. Stuff like Curtis, Reggie Young, Ike Turner and a bunch others were a huge influence. Without them there'd be no "Beast Of Burden," "Castles Made Of Sand," "The Weight"... and the list goes on.

 

As with everything else, Curtis played this in open F♯ tuning. Only that way do you get all the distinctive chord voicings with the right sound (including the distinctive intonation).

Listen when he rakes the E minor - in standard tuning you can hold the chord throughout the three quavers whereas Curtis can only hold it for two quavers since he is not playing an open chord and has to move to the next position. Also, the subsequent run in E minor is no problem in open F♯ tuning. Indeed, once you get the hang of Mayfield's voicings it's all relatively straightforward in open tuning. Curtis was very economical in his playing - none of the contortions needed to play something close to the same thing in standard tuning are required in the correct open tuning (1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 15).



Here's an excerpt from Traveling Soul by Todd Mayfield with quotes from a Guitar Player interview in which Curtis describes his playing style:

[Traveling Soul , pp. 85-86]

 

A great, inventive player who influenced Hendrix and Prince, among countless others. Just listen to his music and focus on the guitar .. you'll hear why his six-string passages are so original and influential.
Curtis also played bass guitar, piano, saxophone, and drums .. which likely had something to do with his feel for creating fills on the guitar within his compositions.

 

One can only wonder about how much great music was destroyed in the fire at his house while he was in hospital.
He must of had hours and hours of priceless recordings in his studio.
Man he had some bad luck.

 

Steve Cropper was another innovation and influential player that was essentially a rhythym guitarist.
Both men were very tasty and had great knowledge that they put to full use with their chord voicings, (turnarounds & passing notes) throughout progressions & intuitive accompaniment.

 

As others have said, check out his work on the Superfly soundtrack, especially the funky instrumentals.

 

I was about to mention Steve .. yes, they are among a select school of musicians with an exceptional intuitive knowledge
that is at the core of transcendent R&B/Soul styling. As @Tom Daniels mentioned upthread, Robbie Robertson is another player who displays the gift of expertise in this capacity as well.