Many Moods of Mayfield: The Claudine Soundtrack's Understated Greatness
As another luminary of Black Star Power walks through heaven's door, another link in my childhood chain is broken. Is becomes was. History's pulse quickens, anxious to be documented before being overtaken by the sands of time. As Diahann Carroll tributes flood social media, my mind is transported back to Carroll's cinematic tour de force, Claudine. Momentarily leaving her Fifth Avenue Bergdorf sheen behind for an anti-star trip across 110th Street to Edgecombe Avenue, Carroll nailed her role as the Harlem single mother navigating her brood through poverty's turbulent waters set to a moving soundtrack that was the wing beneath the movie's wings. Friends and neighbors, they graciously gave me access to their massive record collections when I visited. Thumbing through the racks, I rediscovered music that conjured up long lost memories banished to the corners of my mind. I could always count on seeing the Claudine soundtrack mixed in between Songs In T...