Mavis Staples – Divabetic

Earlier this summer, the song Mama’s Kitchen Table by Ivan Hampden Jr. featuring Paulette McWilliams was a new entry on the UK Soul Chart debuting at #15.

Paulette and I co-wrote the lyrics and Ivan produced the track.

The three of us met while working for Luther Vandross. Ivan Hampden Jr. was Luther’s drummer, Paulette McWilliams was one of his backing vocalists, and I was his assistant.

Before working for Luther, Paulette was in The American Breed who later became Rufus, and she introduced Chaka Khan to them to take her place. She sang with Quincy Jones, featured on Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall” and has toured with Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, and so many others. She was a guest on Richard Marzetti’s Solar Radio show on June 3, 2022. Click HERE to listen.

Ivan Hampden Jr. is a four-time Grammy winner and, as well as Luther’s albums, has appeared on albums by Ashford & Simpson, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, The Temptations, Beyonce, Mavis Staple, and Ann Nesby to name some of the more famous ones.

After Luther’s stroke, related to mismanaged type 2 diabetes, I founded the nonprofit, Divabetic in 2003. Since then, I have reached thousands of at-risk people affected by and living with diabetes through live events, videos, and podcasts. I was thrilled to return to music with my friends, Ivan and Paulette. Seeing Mama’s Kitchen Table on the UK Soul Charts brought me so much joy. It was an unexpected but equally enchanting moment in an unforgettable Summer.

I’m also thrilled to announce the three of us teamed up again to write the new Christmas song, Pink Champagne, coming out in late Fall.

“Pink Champagne is dedicated to anyone experiencing a painful heartbreak during the holidays,” says Paulette McWilliams.

Breakups are hard. But the holidays seem to magnify the loneliness of heartache: parties with everyone coupled up, romantic Christmas music and movies, and those annual Christmas letters brimming with friends’ burgeoning families. The airwaves are filled with upbeat holiday classics leaving little room for sadness and contemplation.

Pink Champagne is a story of a woman’s journey from victim to victor at Christmastime. A mindset that Paulette believes can help someone with a broken heart find fulfillment.

“You can’t experience the joy of the holidays unless you let go of the painful emotions instead of holding them in,” she says. “I hope Pink Champagne helps people who are hurting be able to move on.”

Nancy Wilson’s Guess Who I Saw Today and Marlena Shaw’s Go Away Litte Boy inspired my lyrics and story.

A true classic, Guess Who I Saw Today was written by Murray Grand with lyrics by Elisse Boyd. The delicious, dignified, and elegant Nancy Wilson’s storytelling ability remains unsurpassed. Her timeless tone and delivery satisfy Jazz lovers of all generations.

For the first Lady of Blue Note, Marlena Shaw’s Go Away Little Boy lifted her career to new heights. Her dash of wit and attitude provide a virtual tour de force, a classic moment of 1970’s soul. Marlena’s recording is one part hilarious stand-up routine (a la Millie Jackson or Patti Labelle) and one part slow-jam mood music.

The great singer-composer-producer Curtis Mayfield died from complications of type 2 diabetes on December 26, 1999, at the North Fulton Regional Hospital in Roswell, Georgia. He was only 57 years old.

Curtis Mayfield made his first recordings at the age 16 in 1958 as a member of the R & B group, The Impressions.

In the 1960’s the group remained hot with 14 Top 10 hits featuring Curtis Mayfield as the lead singer, producer and writer. He began to address social issues such as civil rights, inner city poverty, and drug use through his music, a provocative step that turned him into a musical force for change in the Black community. Singer Mavis Staples said, “Curtis wrote some of the best message songs.”

In 1964 The Impressions had its biggest hit to date with the Mayfield song, “Keep on Pushing” and other “anthems” followed: “People Get Ready,” “We’re A Winner”; all hit songs but with a life away from the charts.

In 1968 he started Curtom Records. He was in control of his recording, song publishing and recording studio.

His debut solo album from 1970, Curtis, contains some of his most outspoken songs, including “Move On Up,” “The Other Side of Town,” and the solemn masterpiece of self-critique: “We People Who Are Darker Than Blue.”

Shorty after he began adding his soul funk grooves to soundtracks. His “Super Fly” album became an instant classic of 1970s soul and funk, a rare example of a soundtrack outselling the movie and, along with Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder, Movie work now took up much of Mayfield’s time – Gladys Knight and the Pips (the film “Claudine”), Aretha Franklin (“Sparkle”), Staple Singers (“Let’s Do It Again”), Mavis Staples (“A Piece of the Action”). “Short Eyes” had a 1977 hit for Mayfield himself.

In 1990 CurtisMayfield was paralyzed from the neck down when a light tower fell on him during an outdoor concert in Brooklyn.

Returning home from the hospital, he faced the greatest challenge of his life — learning to live without a body. It forced him to give up all control. In addition, there was the pain. He suffered from phantom hands — an agonizing sensation he compared to thrusting his arms in a bucket of writhing snakes. Atrophy set upon his muscles, and his feet began to curve downward from lack of use. Diabetes became a serious problem too, and the fingers that once effused elegant guitar licks now served solely as pincushions, caked in dried blood and wrapped in bandages from constant blood-sugar tests. His right leg was amputated. On top of that, he suffered perennial urinary-tract infections as a result of his ever-present catheter.

His death was attributed to type 2 diabetes, but he suffered for nine years after that accident. And he actually produced one album in 1996 called “New World Order.” He recorded one line of a song at a time, lying on his back to allow his diaphragm to work and breath to get into his lungs.

Following his death, any number of tributes were mounted, accolades given. But the real tribute lay in the lasting power of the work he left behind, still being discovered and played by each new generation.

https://youtu.be/8USz7gb2RGQ

Tag: Mavis Staples

Mama’s Kitchen Table Makes For An Unforgettable Summer

Divabetic Remembers Curtis Mayfield