Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ImagesMavis Staples, Sinead O'Connor and The Roots are among the artists who will perform at a concert commemorating late soul legend Curtis Mayfield's 70th birthday.  The event, titled Here but I'm Gone: A 70th Birthday Tribute to Curtis Mayfield, will take place Thursday at Lincoln Center in New York City, and also will feature surviving members of Mayfield's old band The Impressions.

The event will benefit the newly established Curtis Mayfield Foundation, which will support music education in the singer/songwriter's adopted home city of Atlanta.

The prolific Mayfield is perhaps best known for his classic Impressions tune "People Get Ready," as well as for his soundtrack to the 1972 blaxploitation flick Superfly, which included the top 10 hits "Freddie's Dead" and the title track.  He **** at the age of 57 in 1999, nine years after being paralyzed in a freak stage accident during a concert in Brooklyn, New York.

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