LOS ANGELES - Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton and Lauryn Hill joined friends, family and former bandmates of Curtis Mayfield to celebrate the late soul singer's life and music at a memorial service Tuesday afternoon (Feb. 22). Wonder got the First African Methodist Episcopal Church congregation singing and dancing as he led a call-and-response session of his improvised lyrics to "It's All Right", the 1963 hit by Mayfield's R&B vocal group the Impressions. He was accompanied by Clapton on guitar, members of the Impressions, a church choir and a band.
"I couldn't sleep last night, because I was so excited and nervous. This is one of the greatest privileges I've ever had." - Eric Clapton "Curtis, Curtis, Curtis will live forever," Wonder called out. "Curtis, Curtis, Curtis will live forever," they answered. During the final song, "Amen", another of Mayfield's Impressions hits, Hill got up from her 10th-row pew and spontaneously joined the group.
Mayfield, whose voice and guitar brought social consciousness to 1960s soul music and helped pioneer funk in the '70s, died in December at age 57 following months of ill health related to paralysis. He was paralyzed from the neck down during a sound check in 1990, when a lighting structure fell on him and crushed his spine.
Before the service began, Wonder said he was eager to pay tribute to a man he had respected since his childhood. "The first time I heard one of his records, I remember being fascinated by the style," the 49-year-old Motown singer said. "The songs were inspired."
Impressions member Fred Cash said Mayfield would have loved the ceremony, which featured actor Danny Glover and Mayfield's wife, Altheida, among the speakers.
"Curtis is smiling," Cash said after the service. "I know he was so happy to see Stevie and Eric and all those people celebrating him."
Before the finale that brought them together, Hill, Wonder, Clapton and the Impressions each led the band and choir through a Mayfield song.
"I couldn't sleep last night because I was so excited and nervous," Clapton, clad in a black suit, said as he took the microphone. "This is one of the greatest privileges I've ever had."
The veteran blues-rock singer/songwriter played guitar and sang on a rendition of the Impressions' "Keep On Pushing," (RealAudio excerpt) accompanied by Cash, original Impressions member Sam Gooden and latter-day members Ralph Johnson and Vandy Hampton.
Hill, dressed in a light blue dress, followed Clapton with a version of Mayfield's "The Makings of You." She recalled how she found a single of the song in her mother's basement when she was a child.
"This song made me feel good," Hill said. "I want to thank Curtis for the contributions he made, not only to the whole world, but to my life." As Hill sang the tune, Clapton sat in a pew swaying and tapping his feet.
Wonder delivered a soulful, uplifting version of the Impressions' "Gypsy Woman," which got off to a rough start when the monitors failed to project his voice. "Can we start again?" he asked the crowd when the problem was fixed, and they responded with loud cheers.
Wonder told the congregation that Mayfield's songs "reflected tremendously the heritage of we as a people, as African Americans." But today, he said, the songs suggest "that we must have a united culture around the world."

The revolution may not have been televised, but the soundtrack of the 1960s and 1970s went something like this: "People Get Ready . . . Keep on Pushin' . . . It's Alright . . . Superfly!"
That, at least, is how more than 300 musicians and parishioners heard it when they gathered Tuesday at the First AME Church in South Los Angeles to pay homage to pop star Curtis Mayfield, the man whose soulful lyrics and silky voice inspired millions of fans.
Mayfield, who died in December at age 57, urged anyone within earshot to pursue self-assertion and social justice. His call resonated with several Grammy Award-winning musicians who came Tuesday to sing his songs in tribute. Stevie Wonder told how Mayfield's music inspired him as a boy to pursue the complex arrangements that mark his own music. Then he launched into a rendition of "Gypsy Woman," an early hit by Mayfield when he was with the Impressions in the 1960s.
"I can say without question that as significant as, yes, the Grammys are, this opportunity is even more [rewarding]," Wonder said.
Eric Clapton echoed that sentiment before he sang Mayfield's "Keep on Pushin'," along with the Impressions, who still perform with a mix of new and original members.
Lauryn Hill, who sang "The Makings of You," said Mayfield "had a huge impact on the way I grew up, on my perception of the world."
With his gospel style and occasional lyrical references to God, Mayfield was a mix of singing minister and the funk guru of his "Superfly" film soundtrack.
The crowd clapped and swayed to Mayfield's music, performed against the backdrop of a church mural depicting the cultural pride, slave history and social triumphs of African Americans.
"He touched me!" the Rev. Steven Johnson shouted to the crowd. "He was a gentle genius. He walked through the social travails of inequality and met them with indignation and strength."
Mayfield's eulogy, delivered by longtime friend and manager Marv Heiman, revealed a boy enamored of the gospel music of his grandmother's traveling church in Illinois.
While growing up in Chicago during the 1940s, Mayfield experienced racism and discrimination, but chose to emphasize life's positive side through his music, Heiman said. He mastered the guitar as a teenager, forging an R&B style that was to influence many other players.
Even after a freak 1990 stage accident that left Mayfield a quadriplegic, Heiman said, the singer remained an optimist. Mayfield recorded his last album, "New World Order," while lying on his back. Uplifting songs like "You're a Winner" inspired Jaii Grayson of West Covina to find a new focus after dropping out of high school during the 1960s.
"He planted that kernel in my head and I told myself: 'Maybe I can chew on this kernel for a while and be a winner,' " said Grayson, a civil engineer.
Keana Hall, 28, said she uses Mayfield songs like "Keep on Pushin" as a source of strength while raising her 11-month-old son Maharri-Ra alone. Depressed over his own paralysis when he met Mayfield in Chicago during the early 1990s, Bob Dillard said the singer gave him strength. "We just talked," the 56-year-old Dillard said while pushing his wheelchair after the memorial.
"Before long," Dillard added, "he had me feeling good. He was just an inspiration, with or without his music."

"People must prove to the people a better day is coming for you and for me," the Impressions sang in 1967's "Choice of Colors," one of Curtis Mayfield's many civil rights anthems. Thirty-three years later, and two months after Mayfield's death, Los Angeles' First African Methodist Episcopal Church looked like the fulfillment of Mayfield's dream, as people of all colors sang, swayed, clapped, laughed and wept in celebration of the Gentle Genius' life and songs.
After the First AME's Freedom Choir piped out a gospel rendition of Mayfield's signature spiritual road song "People Get Ready," Eric Clapton took the stage. "This is one of the greatest privileges I've ever had in my life," said Clapton, who confessed that his nerves wouldn't let him sleep the previous night. Then, guitar in hand and flanked by the surviving Impressions, he launched into their 1964 tune "I've Been Trying," complete with four-part harmonies.
Premier disciple of soul Lauryn Hill was up next. Peering out from under a white kerchief, Hill said that Mayfield had a "huge impact on the way I grew up." Backed by a band assembled by R&B producer Narada Michael Walden, she offered a tender version of Mayfield's 1970 love ballad "The Makings of You," which she introduced as "a song I found in the basement of my mother's house." Stevie Wonder also cited Mayfield as a profound childhood influence. Seated at a piano, he told the story of being an eleven-year-old boy and first hearing "Gypsy Woman" on the radio. "I thought, 'What is a gypsy woman, and why haven't I seen one?'" Wonder said, drawing laughs from the congregation, which included Mayfield's family (he was the father of ten children), friends and record business intimates. Wonder then offered some perspective for many also in town for Wednesday's Grammy festivities. "As significant as the Grammys are, this opportunity is even more: to celebrate the life of Curtis Mayfield." After a false start because his mike was off, Wonder asked the crowd -- to thunderous applause -- "Can we start again?" and then led the band through a gleeful version of the song that so captivated his eleven-year-old imagination.
After the Impressions returned to sing "I'm So Proud," Mayfield's longtime manager and business partner Marv Heiman shared his thoughts. "I believe he sat down next to Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke and the heavens are singing again," he said.

Heiman gave way to Mayfield's visibly moved wife Altheida, who announced the creation of a United Negro College Fund musical scholarship in her husband's name.
The Impressions, with Clapton on guitar, returned for "We're a Winner" and "It's All Right," during which Wonder and Hill joined in. Towards the end of the latter number Wonder bellowed, "Curtis will live forever!"
Rev. Steven Johnson then assumed the pulpit for the eulogy, quoting as much from the "gospel according to Mayfield" as anything written by Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. "It's all right!" he exclaimed. "I've got to keep on pushing ...I can't stop now ... This is my country!"
Everyone with two hands and a mouth then clapped and sang along to Mayfield's spiritual "Amen" as they excited the church. "It was great," said the Impressions' Sam Gooden. "To hear Stevie, Lauryn and Eric up there singing these songs, and the choir singing 'People Get Ready,' you sit there and you almost cry because you're so proud that you were a part of this."
Bandmate Fred Cash agreed. "Curtis is walking around playing his guitar and smiling right now. I know that this would have made him happy." "We were all here because we had a very special affection for Curtis Mayfield," Wonder said after the show. "[His] music is a part of American culture." When asked about his rather euphoric rendition of "It's All Right," Wonder laughed. "I sort of went out [there] a little bit, because I was getting into it, but how can you sing it any better than he did?" Carole King, like Mayfield a member of the Songwriter's Hall of Fame, said, "I think every day should be a tribute to Curtis Mayfield."
As for the Impressions, they plan to continue to spread Mayfield's songs of love. "Oh, we're gonna keep on singing them," said Smokey Hampton. "We got to keep on pushing. We can't stop now."
BILL CRANDALL - (February 23, 2000)