Earth, Wind & Fire
The elemental force of soul and funk. By Geoff Brown.
The resurgence of Earth, Wind & Fire as a live draw in the past half-decade or more is testament to their extraordinary and enduring body of recorded work and, to a lesser extent, a reputation forged in the ’70s for recreating the magic on-stage with a theatricality rare in black bands of the day. This writer first saw EWF in 1975 on their UK debut tour, supporting Santana. In the States, the roles would’ve been reversed – EWF had a Number 1 single, Shining Star, and album, That’s The Way Of The World. Interviewing their impressive leader, Maurice White, at the time, one was struck by his clear vision and strong philosophy, a together bandleader who had the background, training and belief to bring his musical plan to life. Four years later, in the wake of I Am and as 1980’s double Faces was about to be released, we met again. EWF had topped the bill at Wembley Arena in March ’79 with an astonishing two-hour show – crisp, melodic, varied, relentless, jazz vamps and gospel calls, soul’s emotion and funk’s elemental drive, barely five seconds between any two songs – that had far too many moments of visual prestidigitation to describe here. This would’ve meant nothing without the thorough musical education Maurice had accrued from the age of six through gospel, R&B and soul bands in Memphis, as a drummer at Chess in Chicago (with the blues of Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf et al; jazz via four years in the Ramsey Lewis Trio; soul with Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart) and many, many sessions. So by 1971, when he went to Los Angeles to form his own band, White was trained. The first EWF recorded two albums with Warner Bros, were disbanded and White quickly built Mark II. But it still took a couple more albums before hitting the hugely skilled blend of soul, funk, jazz, Latin, Afro and rock that found the widest commercial appeal.