Curtis Mayfield - what took me so long...?

Chicago Sun-Times pop culture and music critic Dave Hoekstra wrote a fabulous overview of Curtis Mayfield and his music.  Click on this post's title above to read it.  I had no idea Mayfield wrote so many great songs.  What Dave writes begins with this....It takes New York to pay tribute to the Chicago sound.  What was called the Chicago sound is overlooked, especially, when compared to the legacy of Motown and Stax-Volt. The Chicago sound was a distinctive blend of the Southern and Northern spirits. While Motown was loyal to arrangements, Chicago was not as automated and more jazz inspired.  In Chicago, everything was framed around the singer--and his or her heart. Mayfield died on Dec. 26, 1999 from complications from diabetes. He had been confined to his home in suburban Atlanta since August, 1990 when a lighting rig fell on him on an outdoor stage in Brooklyn, N.Y. He was paralyzed from the neck down. Mayfield was too ill to attend his March, 1999 induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.