Date: 1971
Release: Rhino #79933
Cover Art: view / download
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Some artists did little more than play near-replicas of their studio tracks in concert. But, as we all know, live shows are the true measure of a musicians’ ability to improvise and create on the spot. Curtis, like his disciple Jimi Hendrix, certainly knew how to transform a tune into a vehicle for soul searing improvisation. Curtis knew how to take you higher when he took to the stage.
This gem of the early 70s is funky, jamming, political, and intimate. Playing to a small but incredibly in tune crowd at Greenwich Village’s Bitter End club, Curtis is given a chance to really stretch and expand. “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue,” Mayfield’s still relevant commentary on black on black violence and disunity, is a grooving political tract with power to rival Gil Scott-Heron‘s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.”
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