Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White dies

Set up nearly as an alternative to Clinton’s anti-establishment weirdness, Earth, Wind and Fire celebrated positivity, employed new-age mysticism and mastered disco funk. Maurice White was recognised in the Songwriters Hall Of Fame the following year. He later joined the popular jazz group the Ramsey Lewis Trio where he was introduced to the kalimba, an African thumb piano he would use extensively in future projects, according to Billboard. No “Shining Star” or “September” or “Boogie Wonderland?“. White’s template of rhythm and hooks resulted in a sequence of LPs as warm and promising as spring.

Their most successful period started with the 1975 album That’s The Way Of The World and continued through that decade.

Best Classic Bands will continue to update this story.

Outside of Earth, Wind & Fire, White worked extensively with Deniece Williams, the Emotions, James Ingram and many others. It was a typically tight production, with its laconic bassline and midtempo lope ceding plenty of room for the singers to kvell. The band’s soul, funk, and R&B roots would give rise to a genre-busting sound marked by rich funk basslines, sharp horn arrangements, infectious meolodies, and a radiant pop heart that imbued each song with the joy that White made his mission to spread through their music.

White’s brother Verdine White, also a member of the band, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Maurice White, who founded Earth, Wind & Fire, has died. Chart-wise, EW&F was becoming a diminishing enterprise, and White brought it to an end.

EARTH, WIND AND FIRE: (Singing) Do you remember 21 night of September?

The band was already scheduled to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Recording Academy this spring.

ROBBINS: Those songs and more won Earth, Wind and Fire six Grammys and a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bailey reunited with the White brothers for four albums between 1987 and 1997, producing the Grammy-nominated hit “Sunday Morning”.

Since his retirement, he appeared on stage with Earth, Wind & Fire on a number of occasions. The deal was that the group would make the soundtrack album, as well as play a fictionalised version of themselves on screen – but it was clear that the film was going to be a flop, so White took matters into his own hands.