Curtis Mayfield In Concert – Ohne Filter
Picture: C+
Sound: B- Extras: C+ Concert: B-
In one of the most poignant installments of German TV’s Ohne
Filter TV concert series comes this April 28th, 1990 appearance
by Curtis Mayfield. Possibly the
last major concert of his that was recorded before his paralyzing stage
accident on August 13th of that year, when a lighting tower
collapsed on him, he here does some of his best known hits in a carefully
reflective way that sacrifices power for a sense of careful wisdom that still
retains the flavor of the original hits.
Only a music master could pull this off, and he does in the following
tracks:
1) Theme
From Superfly
2) It’s All
Right
3) Gypsy
Woman
4) Do Be
Down
5) Freddie’s
Dead from Superfly
6) Pusherman from Superfly
7) Billy
Jack
8) We Gotta
Have Peace
9) People
Get Ready
10) Move On Up from Claudine
11) To Be Invisible
The Superfly tracks have become even more popular
lately in the Hip Hop revival and revisionist approach to the Blaxploitation
cycle. They hold up in the same way
Marvin Gaye’s socially conscious works of the 1970s endure. Mayfield sings them with a sense of just how
right and prophetic he really was. It’s
All Right, Gypsy Woman and People Get Ready are good
renditions of some of the many hits he had with The Impressions. He wrote most of their songs and they have
some famous covers. Brian “Sealed
With A Kiss” Hyland did an odd cover of Gypsy Woman in 1970, while
Jeff Beck and Rod Stewart remade People Get Ready for one of Beck’s
albums years ago that might mark the last time Stewart snag with any empathy
and Rock/Blues depth. Mayfield here
does them better and instead of singing as if they were nostalgia, you can here
him sounding still vital and alive enough in the singing.
This is a very pleasant experience and as music genius
still in remarkable form. Too bad there
was disaster ahead and no well-deserved comeback. Fans of Mayfield and his music will be happy with this one. The full frame PAL color video is about what would expect
for a taping of the time, having the usual limits in its good color and limited
definition. The sound is available in
the usual PCM CD-type 2.0 16bit/48kHz Stereo, as well as a slightly better
Dolby Digital 5.1 AC-3, which plays better all around. The PCM is decent and Dolby better than
usual, almost up there with the 5.1 here heard in the Mark King, Tony Joe White
or even the band America’s DVD from the series, all reviewed elsewhere on this
site. Besides repeating the same stereo
cords ad placement, other DVDs in the series, and Ohne Filter producer interview, it has a good biography of
Mayfield. That rounds out a fine DVD
concert.
- Nicholas Sheffo
