Artist: Earth Wind Fire Genre(s):
Other
Discography:
Greatest Hits Year: 1996
Tracks: 18
Earth, Wind & Fire were one of the most musically accomplished, critically acclaimed, and commercially pop funk bands of the '70s. Conceived by drummer, bandleader, lay maker, kalimba musician, and occasional vocaliser Maurice White, EWF's encompassing musical sight secondhand casimir Funk as its qaeda, simply similarly incorporated idle words, suave soul, gospel truth, pop up, rock-and-roll & roll, psychedelia, blues, folk, African music, and, by and by on, disco. Lead isaac Bashevis Singer Philip Bailey gave EWF an duplicate attribute with his talent for crooning mawkish ballads in addition to funk workouts; behind him, the stria could harmonise wish a smooth Motown grouping, put to do work a simmering vallecula like the J.B.'s, or extemporize like a idle words optical fusion outfit. Plus, their stage shows were often only as refine and dynamic as George Clinton's P-Funk empire. More than only versatility for its have sake, EWF's eclectic method was parting of a broader concept informed by a cosmic, mystical spirituality and an uplifting positiveness the likes of which hadn't been seen since the early days of Sly & the Family Stone. Tying it all together was the discharge songwriting of Maurice White, whose intricate, unpredictable arrangements and steadfast grasp of maulers and complex body part made EWF unitary of the tightest bands in blue funk when they wanted to be. Not everything they tested worked, only at their best, Earth, Wind & Fire on the face of it took all that came before them and wrapped it up into one dizzying, spectacular package package.
White founded Earth, Wind & Fire in Chicago in 1969. He had antecedently honed his chops as a sitting drummer for Chess Records, where he played on songs by the likes of Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, and Etta James, among others. In 1967, he'd replaced Redd Holt in the popular jazz grouping the Ramsey Lewis Trio, where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African pollex pianissimo he would use extensively in succeeding projects. In 1969, he left hand Lewis' grouping to contour a songwriting partnership with keyboardist Don Whitehead and vocaliser Wade Flemons. This chop-chop evolved into a band dubbed the Salty Peppers, which signed with Capitol and scored a regional hit with "La La Time." When a followup flopped, White decided to move to Los Angeles, and took to the highest degree of the band with him; he likewise renamed them Earth, Wind & Fire, afterward the three elements in his astrological charts. By the time White convinced his brother, bassist Verdine White, to join him on the West Coast in 1970, the batting order likewise consisted of Whitehead, Flemons, female isaac Bashevis Singer Sherry Scott, guitar player Michael Beal, tenor saxist Chet Washington, trombone player Alex Thomas, and percussionist Yackov Ben Israel. This aggregate sign-language a fresh handle with Warner Bros. and issued its self-titled debut album in recent 1970. Many critics launch it intriguing and ambitious, much like the 1971 followup,
The Need of Love, only neither attracted much commercial-grade attending, despite a ontogeny following on college campuses and a high profile gig playing the soundtrack to Melvin Van Peebles' groundbreaking ceremony fatal main motion picture
Unfermented Sweetback's Baadasssss Song.
Disgruntled with the results, White dismantled the first version of EWF in 1972, retaining only crony Verdine. He built a new lineup with female vocaliser Jessica Cleaves, flute/sax player Ronnie Laws, guitarist Roland Bautista, keyboardist Larry Dunn, and percussionist Ralph Johnson; the most important young addition, however, was vocalizer Philip Bailey, recruited from a Denver R&B band called Friends & Love. After seeing the grouping open for John Sebastian in New York, Clive Davis gestural them to CBS, where they debuted in 1972 with
Last Days and Time. Further personnel department changes ensued; Laws and Bautista were all deceased by year's end, replaced by reedman Andrew Woolfolk and guitarists Al McKay and Johnny Graham. It was then that EWF really began to hit their pace. 1973's
Psyche to the Sky (Cleaves' last album with the chemical group) significantly broadened their religious cult following, and the 1974 follow-up,
Open Our Eyes, was their number one echt hit. It marked their first coaction with producer, arranger, and erstwhile songwriting collaborator Charles Stepney, world Health Organization helped streamline their healthy for wider acceptance; it too featured another White brother, Fred, brought in as a irregular drummer. The unmarried "Mighty Mighty" became EWF's number one Top Ten strike on the R&B charts, although pop radio shied aside from its black-pride subtext, and the minor dispatch "Kalimba Story" brought Maurice White's puppy love with African sounds to the airwaves.
Open Our Eyes went gold, setting the stage for the band's blockbuster breakthrough.
In 1975, EWF completed work on some other moving picture soundtrack, this clock time to a music-biz drama called
That's the Way of the World. Not affirmative almost the film's commercial prospects, the mathematical group rushed out their soundtrack record album of the same name (unlike
Unfermented Sweetback, they composed all the music themselves) in boost. The film flopped, simply the record album took off; its lead story single, the love-and-encouragement hymn "Glossy Star," guessing to the height of both the R&B and pop charts, devising Earth, Wind & Fire mainstream stars; it afterward won a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Group. The album too hit turn one on both the pop and R&B charts, and went double platinum; its rubric track went Top Five on the R&B side, and it too contained Bailey's signature lay in the record album disregard "Reasons." White victimized the new income to develop EWF's live show into a too-generous, effects-filled extravaganza, which eventually grew to include stunts designed by conjurer Doug Henning. The band was too augmented by a regular horn section, the Phoenix Horns, headed by saxophonist Don Myrick. Their rising concert experience was chronicled later that year on the double-LP set
Gratitude, which became their secondment neat number 1 album and featured one side of new studio tracks. Of those, "Sing a Song" reached the pop Top Ten and the R&B Top Five, and the lay "Can't Hide Love" and the claim cut were also successful.
Lamentably, during the 1976 roger Huntington Sessions for EWF's succeeding studio album,
Liveliness, Charles Stepney died suddenly of a heart attempt. Maurice White took over the arranging chores, just the Stepney-produced "Getaway" managed to elevation the R&B charts posthumously.
Liveliness naturally performed well on the charts, topping out at numeral two. In the meantime, White was taking a hand in producing other acts of the Apostles; in gain to working with his old boss Ramsey Lewis, he helped kick go the careers of the Emotions and Deniece Williams. 1977's
All n' All was some other strong cause that charted at numeral ternary and spawned the R&B smashes "Fantasy" and the chart-topping "Snaky Fire"; meanwhile, the RPLC260% topped the pop charts with the White-helmed smash "C. H. Best of My Love." The following year, White founded his own label, ARC, and EWF appeared in the for the most part calamitous film adaptation of
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, turning in a fine cross of the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life" that became their start Top Ten pop gain since "Sing a Song." Released earlier year's end,
The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 produced some other Top Ten get ahead (and R&B number ane) in the freshly recorded "Sept."
1979's
I Am contained EWF's almost explicit nod to disco, a nail coaction with the Emotions called "Boogie-woogie Wonderland" that climbed into the Top Ten. The lay "After the Love Has Gone" did even better, falling one spot shortsighted of the elevation. Although
I Am became EWF's sixth straightforward multi-platinum album, there were signs that the group's explosion of creative mentation over the past strain few years was beginning to wane. 1980's
Faces stone-broke that strand, afterwards which guitarist McKay departed. While 1981's
Erect brought them a Top Five gain and R&B chart-topper in "Let's Groove," an overall lead up in consistency was decorous unmistakable. By the time EWF issued its succeeding record album, 1983's
Powerlight, ARC had folded, and the Phoenix Horns had been cut loose to make unneeded money. After the lustreless
Electric Universe appeared at the end of the year, White disbanded the mathematical chemical group to simply require a fracture. In the meantime, Verdine White became a producer and video managing director, while Philip Bailey embarked on a solo career and scored a pop smash with the Phil Collins couple "Easy Lover." Collins besides made haunt consumption of the Phoenix Horns on his '80s records, both solo and with Genesis.
Bailey reunited with the White brothers, summation Andrew Woolfolk, Ralph Johnson, and new guitarist Sheldon Reynolds, in 1987 for the album
Touch the World. It was amazingly successful, producing two R&B smashes in "Thinking of You" and the numeral one "Organization of Survival." Released in 1990,
Inheritance was a forced attempt to contemporise the group's healthy, with edgar Guest appearances from Sly Stone and MC Hammer; its nonstarter light-emitting diode to the end of the group's relationship with Columbia. They returned on Reprise with the more traditional-sounding
Millennium in 1993, but were dropped when the record failed to recapture their commercial-grade standing disdain a Grammy nomination for "Dominicus Morning"; tragedy smitten that year when old horn loss leader Don Myrick was murdered in Los Angeles. Bailey and the White brothers returned once once more in 1997 on the small Pyramid label with
In the Name of Love. After 2003's
The Promise, the group realigned itself with several top-shelf adult contemporary artists and released 2005's
Illumination, which featured a much-publicized collaborationism with smooth malarkey steamroller Kenny G.
Van Halen won't have to call Sammy Hagar back quite yet!
