Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 1.27 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 515 Mb
Full Artwork @ 600 dpi (png) -> 167 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Rhino / Warner / Curtom | 8122796489
Soul / Psychedelic Soul / Funk / Blaxploitation

Original Album Series contains Curtis Mayfield's first five solo albums: Curtis (1970), Curtis Live! (1971), Roots (1971), Back to the World (1973), and Sweet Exorcist (1974). As with other Original Album Series packages, each disc is in a paper, LP replica-style sleeve with reproductions of the front and back sides. With the release of Original Album Series by Curtis Mayfield you get 5 Cds by the man himself It really is wonderful bargain.Unlike other sets these have not been re mastered and DO NOT include any extra tracks which is a shame.But then Curtis Mayfield produced each and every one of the five so I suspect that there was no need for them to be remastered as the sound was good to begin with.

Other similar releases which have the extra tracks and often re mastering have sold by the shed load.They are bought by the fans who already have the CDs and any one with just a couple of the Cds to their name not to mention just owning them on Vinyl.The companies have missed a trick not adding additional tracks which the fans really deserve.I just wish Island would get around to releasing similar sets by their rostra of artists.If they had they would sell this set in bucket loads A missed opportunity and a slight letdown for any fans who already has the set? .BUT…I really agree with my co reviewer Karel that if you have them on vinyl then this is a great chance to get the on the more car friendly CD.All the CDS are held in tiny card replicas of the LP sleeves and housed in a card box which is fabulous for storing but not so good for carrying under your arm like we used to back in the 60s and 70s to impress our friends.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis (1970)
FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 269 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 97 Mb

The first solo album by the former leader of the Impressions, Curtis represented a musical apotheosis for Curtis Mayfield – indeed, it was practically the "Sgt. Pepper's" album of '70s soul, helping with its content and its success to open the whole genre to much bigger, richer musical canvases than artists had previously worked with. All of Mayfield's years of experience of life, music, and people were pulled together into a rich, powerful, topical musical statement that reflected not only the most up-to-date soul sounds of its period, finely produced by Mayfield himself, and the immediacy of the times and their political and social concerns, but also embraced the most elegant R&B sounds out of the past. As a producer, Mayfield embraced the most progressive soul sounds of the era, stretching them out compellingly on numbers like "Move on Up," but also drew on orchestral sounds (especially harps), to achieve some striking musical timbres (check out "Wild and Free"), and wove all of these influences, plus the topical nature of the songs, into a neat, amazingly lean whole. There was only one hit single off of this record, "(Don't Worry) If There's a Hell Down Below We're All Going to Go," which made number three, but the album as a whole was a single entity and really had to be heard that way.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis/Live! (1971)
FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 410 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 162 Mb

Curtis/Live! is, simply, one of the greatest concert albums ever cut on a soul artist, and one of the legendary live albums of all time. Cut in January of 1971 during four nights at The Bitter End (then Greenwich Village's leading music venue) in New York, the resulting double LP transcended any expectations in both its programming and execution – Mayfield performed numbers off of the Curtis album ("[Don't Worry] If There's a Hell Below We're All Going to Go"), as well as exciting and urgent new versions of songs originally performed by the Impressions ("We're a Winner," "People Get Ready," "Gypsy Woman"), plus a very moving R&B version of "We've Only Just Begun." This is all beautifully stripped-down work by a quintet consisting of Mayfield (vocals, guitar), Craig McMullen (guitar), Tyrone McCullen (drums), "Master" Henry Gibson (percussion), and Joseph "Lucky" Scott (bass) – a solid, intense performance, with quietly elegant guitar playing against a rock-solid rhythm section, as Impressions hits are rethought and reconfigured in a new context, and Mayfield's early solo repertory comes to life in newer, longer live versions.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Roots (1971)
FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 264 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 94 Mb

Curtis Mayfield's visionary album, a landmark creation every bit as compelling and as far-reaching in its musical and extra-musical goals as Marvin Gaye's contemporary What's Goin' On. Opening on the hit "Get Down," the album soars on some of the sweetest and most eloquent – yet driving – soul sounds heard up to that time. Mayfield's growing musical ambitions, first manifested on the Curtis album, and his more sophisticated political sensibilities, presented with a lot of raw power on Curtis Live!, are pulled together here in a new, richer studio language, embodied in extended song structures ("Underground"), idealistic yet lyrically dazzling anthems ("We Got to Have Peace," "Keep On Keeping On," and, best of all, the soaring "Beautiful Brother of Mine"), and impassioned blues ("Now You're Gone"). The music is even bolder than the material on the Curtis album, with Mayfield expanding his instrumental range to the level of a veritable soul orchestra; and the recording is better realized, as Mayfield, with that album and a tour behind him, shows a degree of confidence that only a handful of soul artists of this era could have mustered.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Back to the World (1973)
FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 209 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 86 Mb

Back to the World, the first album Curtis Mayfield recorded and released after hitting number one with the intense inner-city vignette Superfly, returned him to a steady balance of optimism for the future and direct social commentary regarding the problems of his people. The lead single, "Future Shock," was inspired by Alvin Toffler's 1970 book of the same name, which warned readers that industrial society was changing so radically that environmental and social problems could be endemic for decades. The track tapped into the same grooves and brass heard on Superfly (perhaps overly so), but said more about the world around ("We got to stop all men, from messing up the land/When won't we understand, this is our last and only chance?"). The title track was very upbeat and positive, as were the refreshing "If I Were Only a Child Again" and "Future Song (Love a Good Woman, Love a Good Man)." With no hit singles to even approach the three high performers from Superfly, though, Back to the World was a distinct disappointment; the music wasn't as powerful as fans were expecting, and though the songs were up to Mayfield's usual high standards, there were many similarities (musically and thematically) to material from each of his proper solo albums.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Sweet Exorcist (1974)
FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 153 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 76 Mb

Curtis Mayfield hit a stride during the '70s that was unparalleled among R&B/soul performers from an album standpoint. He was writing, producing, arranging, and performing on great album after great album, then distributing them on his own label as well. This one included the big hit "Kung Fu," plus the title song, and once more perfectly blended rigorous message tracks and steamy love songs. Sadly, it hasn't been reissued on CD and isn't on the list to be at this time.

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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Curtis Mayfield - Original Album Series 1970-1974 (2013) [5CD BoxSet] {Rhino}

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