Can you imagine? You just show up at The Bitter End, one of Greenwich Village’s longest running venues, in 1971, and there is Curtis Mayfield with a four-piece band. It’s January, so you’re more than a little chilly but Curtis keeps it warm and jumpy with “Mighty Mighty,” “Stone Junkie,” and “We’re a Winner.” He does a dozen other songs, too. We haven’t had Superfly yet, and the room only has a few hundred people in it. Luckily, genius Eddie Kramer records the show and mixes it down the block at Electric Lady. The band is so casual and confident and clean that you can almost forget you’re hearing American soul funk at its absolute highest level. It’s just a night out in New York. No net, no skips.

Mayfield takes on the mantle of psychedelic-soul, conscious musical warrior, purveying finely-wrought funk and soul that is sometimes sweet and innocent, sometimes dark and angry. His crack four-piece band can kick up an intense wall of hippie-funk or the lightest of love songs with ease, and Mayfield runs through a mix of his Impressions and solo material on an album that also contains vocal interludes and crowd interactions, giving it an extremely intimate feel. Also notable for ‘Stare And Stare’, which never appeared on any Mayfield studio albums and only exists in this live version.