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MAURICE WHITE – LEGEND AND FOUNDER OF EARTH WIND AND FIRE

maurice white

It is with immense sadness that we learned of the death of one of Soul and Funk’s greatest musicians, writers, producers and singers.  Maurice White, founder of Earth Wind And Fire passed away on Thursday 4th February after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease, with which he was diagnosed in the early 90’s.   Earth Wind and Fire and Maurice White played a huge role in the development of Laurence’s and my love of our music.

 

Maurice was born on 19th December 1941 in Memphis Tennessee.  As a teenager he moved to Chicago, where he found work as a drummer at Chess Records. He played on records by Etta James, Muddy Waters, Sugar Pie De Santo, Buddy Guy, The Dells and Ramsey Lewis amongst others.  Indeed, he replaced Isaac ‘Red’ Holt in Lewis’ trio and forged a long standing musical relationship with the pianist and played on ‘Wade In The Water’.  He also played on the Fontella Bass hit ‘Rescue Me’.  Whilst at Chess, he helped form the Funk group that was to become known as ‘The Pharaohs’, who have since gained something of a cult following for their rare LP ‘Awakening’.

 

With friends Wade Flemons, and Don Whitehead, he formed a song writing team.  They wrote primarily for commercials, but also recorded under the name the Salty Peppers and earned a contract with Capitol Records.  They released a couple of singles, but with only moderate localized success.  White re-located to Los Angeles, increased the size of the band and renamed it Earth Wind And Fire (due to the association with his star sign Sagittarius).

 

The original ten-piece incarnation of Earth Wind And Fire included Maurice’s brother Verdine as well as Flemons and Whitehead.  They signed to Warner Brothers, where they recorded the band’s first two critically acclaimed albums: the brilliant Afro Funk self-titled set and ‘The Need Of Love’ both released in 1971.  These Warner Brothers albums sold poorly at the time.

 

Things changed when Clive Davis of Columbia Records attended one of the band’s concerts and decided to buy out their contract from Warners.  The personnel – apart from Maurice and bass playing brother Verdine – changed completely with the likes of Larry Dunn, Ralph Johnson and Al McKay joining.  Even Ronnie Laws was a member for one album. Gradually the band’s reputation grew as did sales with a series of strong albums such as ‘Last Days In Time’, ‘Keep Your Head Together’ and ‘Open Your Eyes’.

 

The big break came with the soundtrack to an unsuccessful movie ‘That’s The Way OF The World’ that documented the ups and downs of trying to make it in the music business.  Maurice White even played a cameo role.  The album however was massive, going triple platinum and spawned the hits ‘Shining Star’ and the title track.  It was a masterpiece, and many including this writer, consider it to be the band’s finest album.  Tunes such as the Funk of ‘Africano’, the wonderful ballad ‘Reasons’ and joyous ‘Happy Feelings’ rank amongst Earth Wind And Fire’s finest recordings.

 

The band toured, opening for Santana in front of massive audiences, this exposure gaining a huge number of new fans and from a wider base than lovers of Funk/ Soul.  The group’s live shows were developing and started to incorporate elements of theatre that were to define their act.  They released the double album ‘Gratitude’, which captured the energy of the live band on three sides, whilst the fourth side was studio based and included the Grammy nominated ‘Can’t Hide Love’.  ‘Gratitude’ sold 3,000,000 copies, an incredible number for a live album by a Funk or Soul band.

 

Exceptional albums followed – ‘Spirit’ and ‘All N All’; the latter included the hit ‘Serpentine Fire’ plus ‘Fantasy’, ‘Magic Mind’ and ‘Runnin’’.  ‘All N All’ runs ‘That’s The Way of The World’ close in terms of quality.  It was another masterpiece, even down to the gatefold sleeve drawn by Japanese artist Shusei Nagaoka.  It depicts a pyramid and various images with an Egyptian theme, and emphasized White and the band’s fascination with spirituality.

 

There were also hit singles, like ‘September’ and a cover of the Beatles’ ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ that were featured only on compilation albums.  Disco was huge at this time and the band’s label, Columbia, were conscious that Earth Wind And Fire needed to appeal to Disco’s growing audience.  ‘Boogie Wonderland’ resulted in one of the band’s biggest hits and one of the defining songs of the Disco phenomena.  The album ‘I Am’ from which ‘Boogie Wonderland’ was culled also featured a host of more commercially orientated gems including the gorgeous ballad ‘After The Love Has Gone’.

 

The band, however had peaked, though good albums such as the double LP ‘Faces’, ‘Raise’ and ‘Powerlight’ continued to sell well.  Times were changing.  The large funk bands with full horn sections such as EWF and Cameo were no longer sustainable in the recession years of the early eighties.  An unsuccessful attempt to incorporate modern electronics resulted in the abysmal ‘Electric Universe’ album.  The band’s halcyon days were over.  Maurice White recorded a self-titled solo set in 1985 that did reasonably well.  Somewhat surprisingly, it is Maurice’s only solo album.

 

During the nineties and noughties, Earth Wind And Fire recorded occasionally.  Albums like ‘Millennium’ and ‘In The Name Of Love’ were in themselves decent, but fell well short of past glories.  It is only with 2013’s ‘Then Now And Forever’, ironically the first album without input from Maurice, that the band managed to recapture much of the magical spirit of the seventies.

 

Earth Wind And Fire continued to tour throughout the barren years.  Their stage show, honed in the seventies was legendary and involved all kinds of pyrotechnics, magic and elaborate stage effects that had, alongside Parliament/ Funkadelic brought a new dynamic to Soul and Funk performances.  Sadly, Maurice fell ill with Parkinson diseases and by the mid-90s was no longer able to perform live.

 

Whilst at the peak of the band’s success White honed his production skills on Ramsey Lewis’ ‘Sun Goddess’ and ‘Salongo’ albums.  Launching the ARC label, White produced or co-produced several fine recordings including, ex Stevie Wonder backing singer, Deniece Williams’ debut LP ‘This Is Niecy’ and the Emotions ‘Flowers’ and ‘Rejoice’.  All three are classic Soul albums.  White went on to produce Pop acts such as Neil Diamond and Barbara Streisand in the eighties.  In more recent years White produced albums by Smooth Jazz artists, the Urban Knights and Brian Culbertson.

 

Maurice White leaves a legacy of fantastic music both as an artist, songwriter and producer.  From all accounts, he was a generous man with his time and advice to aspiring musicians, eager to share the expertise that he had gained from over 50 years in the business.  Maurice RIP and thank you.  Your music will live on in our hearts and your spirit will shine bright forever.

 

Malcolm Prangell.