Goodbye to the great Maurice White

The talk now is that with all the talents recently admitted to the great beyond, you know, Natalie Cole, David Bowie and Glen Frey, having a record producer around might be a nice idea. And so the inventive Maurice White, who defied conventions to create the timeless sound of Earth Wind & Fire was called to do the job. White, 74, died in his sleep in his Los Angeles home of complications from Parkinson’s disease, last Feb. 3. I believe that he is one of the founding fathers of pop music as we know it today.

White was born on Dec. 19, 1941 in Memphis, Tennessee. He started singing in the church choir and later developed a serious interest in playing the drums. From being a member of his high school drum corps, he went on to study at the Chicago Conservatory of Music. At the same time, he was performing with a jazz band in local nightclubs. His most notable stint during this period was with the Ramsey Lewis Trio.

It was the trio’s success with recording in the early ’70s that prompted White to strike out on his own. He formed a band that he named after the elements of his astrological sign, Sagittarius. These are earth, wind and fire. For those who have been wondering why water was left out in the group’s name, that is your answer. Water or no water in its name, Earth Wind & Fire produced ground-breaking music that lives on today.

White was Earth Wind & Fire’s front man, drummer and singer. His tenor and Phillip Bailey’s falsetto greatly contributed to the band’s unique sound. He was a songwriter. Shining Star, September, Fantasy were among his works. He was the arranger. White combined his jazz background with soul, R&B dance and funk to mind-blowing success. Not only that. He added a horn section and lots of strings to Earth, Wind & Fire music. He also introduced the use of the kalimba, a thumb piano originally from Africa that was used in all of the group’s recordings.

White also produced most of the Earth, Wind & Fire albums to much acclaim and chart success. The band has sold over 90 million records. He won a total of seven Grammys and was nominated 20 times. He also produced records for other artists like Barbra Streisand, Cher, the Ramsey Lewis Trio, Deniece Williams, Neil Diamond and others. One of his biggest hits outside of Earth Wind & Fire was the Grammy-winning Best Of My Love by the girl group, the Emotions.

White retired from performing in 1987 after he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. However, he remained Earth Wind & Fire’s leader and joined the band on important occasions. He also continued his production work with the band and other artists until a few years ago.

For those who had just become interested in the music of Earth Wind & Fire, may I recommend that you get a copy of Sony’s The Essential Earth Wind & Fire Collection. There are other compilation albums on release but the cuts in this one was chosen by Maurice himself and we are all feeling sentimental about the guy these days. Of course this is also for all those devoted Earth Wind & Fire fans who want to refurbish their surely much worn-out copies.

The Essential songs in the two-disc set are: Serpentine Fire, Sing A Song, Getaway, Shining Star, September, Got To Get You Into My Life, Boogie Wonderland, After The Love Is Gone, That’s The Way Of The World, Can’t Hide Love, Fantasy, Kalimba Story, Mighty Mighty, Reasons, Saturday Nite, All About Love, Yearnin’ Learnin’, Evil, Devotion, Keep Your Head To The Sky, Ponta de Areia, Open Our Eyes, I’ll Write A Song For You, Drum Song, In The Stone, I Can’t Let Go, Wait, You And I, Let Me Talk, And Love Goes On, You, Let’s Groove, Fall In Love With Me and Side By Side.

The album does not contain other Earth Wind & Fire goodies like Let’s Groove, Gratitude, Getaway, Happy Feeling, Africano, See The Light, Caribou Chaser, Love Music, which are mostly the songs from the That’s The Way Of The World soundtrack album. There’s a story behind this one.

A long time ago, Earth Wind & Fire provided music for a movie. What they turned out was incredible. The picture however was so bad that it became a case of the music becoming more successful than the movie, which nobody heard about back in the ’70s and which nobody remembers today. That is, save for the sounds of Earth Wind & Fire. If you can, it would also be nice if you could get a copy of this one as this is the album that got the band off and running to stardom.