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Earth, Wind & Fire
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Earth, Wind & Fire is an American R&B band led by Maurice White. Formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969, they are known for a number of hit singles, including "Shining Star" and "September", for their fusion of Latin, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Pop, Rock and other genres into one unique sound and the dynamic sound of their horn section. Their music also has an African influence through the use of the kalimba.
Earth, Wind & Fire has received twenty Grammy Award nominations for their work, winning six.
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Encyclopedia
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American R&B band led by Maurice White. Formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969, they are known for a number of hit singles, including "Shining Star" and "September", for their fusion of Latin, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Pop, Rock and other genres into one unique sound and the dynamic sound of their horn section. Their music also has an African influence through the use of the kalimba.
Earth, Wind & Fire has received twenty Grammy Award nominations for their work, winning six. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. They have earned more than 50 gold and platinum albums and have sold over 90 million albums worldwide earning them a place on the list of best-selling music artists. VH1 ranked Earth, Wind & Fire number 60 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of Rock & Roll.
Career
Early years
Band leader and founder Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1941 to a father who was a doctor and an occasional saxophonist. He was a childhood friend of Booker T Jones. In his teenage years he moved to Chicago and found work as a session drummer for Chess Records. He played on the records of artists such as Etta James, Fontella Bass, Billy Stewart, Ramsey Lewis, Sonny Stitt, Muddy Waters, The Impressions and Buddy Guy. He also played the drums on Fontella Bass's Rescue Me and Billy Stewart's Summertime . In 1962, along with other studio musicians at Chess, he was a member of the Jazzmen, who later became the Pharaohs.
By 1966 he became the new drummer in the Ramsey Lewis Trio, replacing Isaac 'Red' Holt and bassist Cleveland Eaton replacing Eldee Young. Holt would go on to be a part of the Young-Holt Unlimited. Maurice as part of the Ramsey Lewis Trio played on nine of the group's albums which included Wade In The Water,, from which the track Hold It Right There won a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal Or Instrumental , Goin' Latin, and Dancing in the Street . While in the Trio he was introduced to the Kalimba by Ramsey Lewis and the Trio's 1969 album Another Voyage featured the first recording of Maurice playing the Kalimba. In 1969, Maurice left the Ramsey Lewis Trio, and joined two friends in Chicago, Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead, as a songwriting team composing songs and commercials in the Chicago area. The three friends got a recording contract with Capitol, and called themselves the "Salty Peppers," and had a marginal hit in the Midwestern area called "La La Time."
The Salty Peppers' second single, "Uh Huh Yeah," didn't fare as well, and Maurice decided it was time for a change of location and a change in the band's name, which became Earth, Wind & Fire. This was based on the fact that White's astrological sign of Sagittarius had a primary elemental quality of Fire and seasonal qualities of Earth and Air (hence the omission of Water, the fourth classical element). White recruited Chicago singer Sherry Scott, along with local percussionist Phillard Williams, and then asked his younger brother Verdine whether he'd like to head out west. Verdine White then joined the band in 1970 as their new bassist.
Maurice held auditions in L.A., adding Michael Beale on guitar, Chester Washington on reeds, Leslie Drayton for trumpet and initially the group's musical arranger, and trombonist Alex Thomas to the lineup. With Wade Flemons playing the electric piano and vocals and Verdine on bass, percussion and vocals,a ten member Earth, Wind & Fire was born .
Their self-titled debut album, Earth, Wind & Fire, was released in February 1971 to great critical acclaim, as was November 1971's The Need of Love
both released on Warner Brothers Records. A single, from this album "I Think About Lovin' You" provided EWF with their first Top 40 R&B hit. In 1971, the group also performed the soundtrack to the Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. which was recorded at the Paramount Recording Studios on Santa Monica Boulevard and released on Stax records.However, some members of EWF were restless and the band broke up after having been together for less than six months. Maurice White decided to re-form the group and he started holding auditions.
The switch to Columbia/CBS Records
In 1972, Maurice dissolved the line-up (minus himself and brother Verdine White), and added Vocalist Jessica Cleaves, former member of the R&B group The Friends of Distinction, Ronnie Laws on the flute and the saxophone, Rhythm Guitarist Roland Bautista, Keyboardist Larry Dunn, Percussionist Ralph Johnson and Vocalist Philip Bailey. Warner Brothers did not know how to promote this new combo as the only other funk band on their label was Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band. The band won an audition for managers Bob Cavallo and Joe Ruffalo which was successful, and Cavallo's management of John Sebastian led to a series of gigs as opening act for the popular pop/folk singer. A performance at New York's Rockefeller Center introduced EWF to Clive Davis, then President of Columbia Records. Davis loved what he saw and bought their contract from Warner Brothers.
In the spring of 1972, EWF headed to the studio to record Last Days and Time, their CBS debut. The album featured mostly original material, but Philip Bailey had suggested the Pete Seeger song, "Where Have All The Flowers Gone," and the group threw in a cover of the Bread hit "Make It With You" for good measure.
Classic Period: 1973-1980
The album Head to the Sky, was released in 1973, and with this album some personnel changes took place. By this time, Ronnie Laws and Roland Bautista had left to pursue new musical opportunities. Philip Bailey recommended former East High School classmate Andrew Woolfolk, who had been busy in New York studying sax with sax maestro Joe Henderson and was on the verge of taking up a career in banking when Bailey called. Guitarists Al McKay, who had been performing with The Watts 103rd St. Rhythm Band, and Johnny Graham, from R&B favorites New Birth, rounded out the lineup.
Head to the Sky yielded the group's first two legitimate hit singles: "Evil," co-written by Maurice and Philip, and the title track, "Keep Your Head To The Sky," both top 30 R&B and top 60 pop charts. It was also certified gold and eventually went platinum. Jessica Cleaves left the band after the release of Head to the Sky.
In 1974 the album Open Our Eyes was released. This was the group's first platinum album, and a major hit. In May 1974, "Mighty Mighty" became Earth Wind & Fire's first top 30 hit on the pop charts, peaking at #29. Another single Devotion was a song with a strong spiritual message. Charles Stepney began his work with EW&F as an associate producer of this album on the request of Maurice White. Stepney had previously worked with The Dells,Minnie Riperton and the Ramsey Lewis Trio. On April 6th 1974 Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the California Jam a west coast rock festival which attracted an audience of 200,000.
Earth, Wind & Fire's true breakthrough came in the form of the 1975 album That's the Way of the World which was the soundtrack to a movie of the same name. In 1974 Earth Wind & Fire worked with Sig Shore, the creator of the motion picture Super Fly, on a new film about the dark side of the recording industry. That's The Way Of The World starred Earth Wind & Fire as "The Group," a new recording act. In the film, Harvey Keitel hears "The Group" performing, and produces their first album. The film's title is repeated throughout the film as a shrug of the shoulders to the music world. Earth Wind & Fire performed the songs in the film, and Maurice had a small speaking part as leader of "The Group."
Though the film was not a success, the song "Shining Star" became a huge mainstream hit and helped launched the band's career. It was the first time that the band could afford a full horn section. This album also included the hit songs "Reasons","Happy Feeling," and "All About Love," which received constant radio airplay on R&B stations and with That's The Way Of The World EWF became the first black act to top both the Billboard album and singles charts. . That's The Way Of The World has been inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.
Starting with That's the Way of the World, the Japenese Artist Shusei Nagaoka began doing the artwork and the illustrations for several of Earth, Wind & Fire's album covers many of which had an Egyptian theme. . Maurice's younger brother Fred White who had played in Chicago clubs as a drummer with Donny Hathaway and later playing with Little Feat joined the group and Ralph Johnson turned to vocals. After returning from their first European dates with Santana, CBS wanted another album.
The band's new album sessions in June of 1975 produced "Sing A Song" and "Can't Hide Love," the latter written by Clarence "Skip" Scarborough. These songs were included with other studio songs on Gratitude, a double set LP comprised mostly of live concert material from the "That's the Way Of The World" tour which stayed at number one on the pop and R&B charts for three weeks. With the release of Gratitude the group's horn section headed by Don Myrick and also including Louis Satterfield, both from Maurice's Chicago session dates, and Michael Harris, became an integral part of the EWF sound being credited on Gratitude.
Aside from his EWF duties, Maurice created and developed Kalimba Productions and had signed two acts - vocalist Deniece Williams,a former member of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove backup group and the r&b group The Emotions, who had a run of hits with Volt Records from 1969 to 1974. Maurice also loaned Earth Wind & Fire's signature Phenix Horns—Don Myrick on saxophone, Louis Satterfield on trombone, Rahmlee Davis and Michael Harris on trumpets—to his other production projects, the Emotions, Ramsey Lewis and Deniece Williams. Also in 1975 Earth, Wind & Fire won Down Beat magazine's Readers Poll for favourite Rock/Blues Group.
Earth Wind & Fire released Spirit in October 1976 and the album spawned the hit singles Getaway and Saturday Nite. "Getaway", came from outside the group as Verdine White heard "Getaway" for the first time from someone who was producing Bobbi Humphrey. He thought the song would be a good for EWF, and took it into the studio and recorded the song. In 1976, after helping co-produce and arrange Earth Wind & Fire's Spirit album, Deniece Williams' "This is Niecy" album, and The Emotions debut album "Flowers", producer and songwriter Charles Stepney died of a heart attack on May 17th, 1976, in Chicago,Illinois at the age of 43. Maurice then took over the production duties of Kalimba Productions for EWF. He was survived by his wife Rubie, his three daughters Eibur, Charlene and Chante and his parents and brother.
Their concerts during this time were loaded with pyrotechnics, magic, laser lights, flying pyramids and levitating guitarists and elaborate production tricks that included the entire group ascending in a pyramid and a disappearing act which saw EWF literally vanishing from sight. Magician Doug Henning directed many of their tours throughout the 1970s.
In November 1977, the group released another studio LP, All 'N All. With a mystical album cover All 'N All contained the hits Serpentine Fire and Fantasy, and has achieved triple platinum status. Maurice White in the midst of this started to put on the tour some of the acts that he was also producing at the time, such as The Emotions, Deneice Williams and Ramsey Lewis.1978 marked the year wherein EWF picked up three Grammy Awards, the third for their version of The Beatles "Got To Get You Into My Life". "Got to Get You into My Life" was featured as were the band in the movie, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. The film itself was a commercial bomb; however, "Got to Get You into My Life" was the biggest hit from the movie's soundtrack.
It was also the year that Maurice and managers Cavallo and Ruffalo worked out a deal for the launch of ARC (The American Recording Company) to be distributed through CBS and the creation of two recording studios, George Massenburg/ARC in West Los Angeles, and The Complex in Los Angeles. The year ended with another hit single, "September" which was added to the Quintuple Platinum compilation album The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 which was released on November 23rd 1978 just four days before Thanksgiving.
Bobby Harris of the Dazz Band at this time requested and got Philip Bailey to produce the group's first album, Kinsman Dazz. Bailey would co-produce the second album, Dazz, and had a major input into the group's vocal arrangements. In 1979, the band performed "September" and "That's The Way Of The World" at the Music for UNICEF Concert, which was broadcast worldwide from the United Nations General Assembly for NBC . They donated their royalties from the song to UNICEF.
1979 saw the release of I Am, the group's ninth album (the seventh for Columbia, and the second to be distributed by ARC). Songs from the album included "In the Stone", "Can't Let Go", and the much-anticipated sad ballad "After the Love Has Gone", which has cracked the number 2 spot on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts.
A good portion of 1979 was spend overseas headlining shows in Europe and Japan. Mid-'79 saw EWF topping the dance music charts with "Boogie Wonderland", produced by Maurice and Al McKay, and featuring The Emotions. Verdine White claims that "Boogie Wonderland" really was capturing the tail end of the disco era.
The double-album Faces, the group's tenth album (the eighth for Columbia, the third distributed ARC release, and the first double LP since late 1975's Gratitude) was released in October 1980 and went gold. Maurice White has picked Faces as his favorite Earth, Wind & Fire album. After the release of this album longtime rhythm guitarist Al McKay left the band to pursue production interests and was replaced by returning electric guitarist Roland Bautista, giving the band a bit of a hard rock feel . Phil Collins saw EWF while they were on one of their European tours and came in contact with EWF's horn section, where they later worked on Genesis songs like "No Reply At All" and "Paperlate," and on his solo hits like "I Missed Again" and "Sussudio".
Electronic Period 1981-1987
The platinum Raise!, EWF's eleventh album was released in the fall of 1981 and it featured their hit single "Let's Groove", and the Grammy Award winning "I Wanna Be With You". On the 30th of October 1981 Earth, Wind & Fire appeared at American Bandstand's 30th Anniversary Special performing Let's Groove.
Powerlight was released in early 1983 and included the hit singles "Fall In Love With Me" a number 17 pop hit, and "Side By Side." "Powerlight" went gold. Also In 1983, Earth, Wind & Fire contributed the song "Dance, Dance, Dance" to the soundtrack of the animated film Rock & Rule. White disbanded Earth, Wind & Fire in 1983 after the synthesized Electric Universe was released in late 1983 to poor sales and reviews. Maurice White attributes the album's lack of success to its release so quickly after Powerlight. It was their last release for four years.
During their hiatus, Philip Bailey released his second and most successful solo project, the gold album Chinese Wall. The first single from that Phil Collins produced album, a duet with Collins called "Easy Lover", went Gold and also number 2 on the US Billboard Hot 100. The music video of Bailey and Collins rehearsing their collaboration hit #1 on MTV's video playlist, and won an MTV video music award . The album also featured the Phoenix Horns.
During this period Bailey also released a number of secular and Gospel albums, one of which won him a Grammy for Best Male Gospel Performance.
Also, during the hiatus, Verdine White worked behind the scenes, writing and directing videos. He produced a Level 42 album, and promoted go-go bands like Trouble Funk and E.U. Maurice during this time produced for Barbara Streisand and Atlantic Starr and worked with Neil Diamond and Cher and released a solo album entitled Maurice White in 1986 that included a cover of "Stand by Me" (song) which went to number 6 on the R&B charts and number 11 on the Adult Contemporary charts and the album also featured an appearance by Gerald Albright . A compilation album entitled The Collection was released in may of 1986 and this album went to number 5 on the UK pop charts for two weeks and was certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry .
In 1987, CBS Records convinced Philip Bailey and Maurice White that a reunion of Earth Wind & Fire would be beneficial for all parties. Verdine White, Ralph Johnson and Andrew Woofolk would also return and new to the group was guitarist/vocalist Sheldon Reynolds, and a new horn section dubbed the Earth, Wind and Fire Horns made up of Gary Bias(saxophone) , Ray Brown (trumpet and flugelhorn) and Reggie Young (trombone). The band's reunion fostered the 1987 Gold album Touch the World, an album that brought forth the hit single penned by a unknown songwriter, Skylark "System Of Survival," which reached number one on the Billboard R&B charts and Dance charts,and a number one and number 3 hit single on the R&B and Dance charts "Thinking Of You". The album went onto number 3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 33 on the pop charts.
Later Career 1988-2003
The band continued to release new albums, including 1988's Gold album The Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 2. Their final Columbia album was 1990's Heritage which featured a collaboration with Sly Stone.
1993 saw the Warner Bros. release Millennium. The single "Sunday Morning" from Millennium was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group . The album also featured the Prince written track superhero.
On July 30, 1993, Phenix Horns saxophonist Don Myrick was fatally shot by the Los Angeles Police Department in a case of mistaken identity and on October 13th 1993 former Earth, Wind & Fire member (1970-1972) Wade Flemons died from cancer in Battle Creek, Michigan.
In 1994 Earth, Wind and Fire were inducted into the NAACP Hall Of Fame. On September 15th, 1995, Earth, Wind & Fire was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. All the original members of the group showed up. Maurice White attributed EWF's success to the support of their fans. During this time, Maurice White retired from touring with the band for health reasons concentrating more on producing and developing new Earth, Wind & Fire recordings and working with other artists. Phillip Bailey was then given the mantle of onstage leader of the band. The studio album In The Name of Love was released in 1997 on Pyramid Records. Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival and gave an encore performance the following year. In 1999 Earth, Wind & Fire performed on the A&E Network show Live By Request .
Earth, Wind & Fire was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March, 6th 2000 by rapper Lil'Kim to a standing ovation. The band's original members Maurice White, Phillip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, Al McKay, Larry Dunn, Andrew Woofolk,Fred White and Johnny Graham played together for the first time in 20 years at the ceremony performing Shining Star and That's The Way Of The World. After their induction into the Hall of Fame an effort was made by the original band members to have a full reunion but it didn't work out.On June 20, 2000 Earth, Wind & Fire were the special musical guests at a White House state dinner hosted by President Bill Clinton held in a tent on the White House lawn, in honor of His Majesty Mohammed VI, King of Morocco and Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Meryem.
In 2001 EWF released a biography of the band entitled Shining Stars: The Official Story of Earth, Wind, & Fire which was directed by Kathryn Arnold. On February,24th 2002 Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the closing ceremonies of the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Maurice White released on his own label Kalimba Records the album Live In Rio in 2002 which is a live album from the band's 1980 performance in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.
On Monday, June 17th, 2002, EWF accepted the ASCAP Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA. The award was presented by Jimmy Jam, ASCAP President and Chairman Marilyn Bergman and Stevie Wonder. In 2003 they were inducted into the Vocal Group Hall of Fame and Earth, Wind & Fire were also inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk on Monday, July 7, 2003.
The Promise, the band's first studio album in six years was released in 2003. The Promise received good reviews upon its release and it included strong songs reminiscent of classic EW&F such as the kalimba laden track All In The Way, Betcha', She Waits and two previously unreleased songs from the "I Am" sessions Where Do We Go From Here and Dirty. The Song Hold Me from the The Promise was nominated for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance..The Promise went to number 19 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts .
Illumination (2004-present)
On Sunday 8th February, 2004 Earth, Wind and Fire with Maurice White showing up performed alongside Outkast, The Robert Randolph and the Family Band and Parliament Funkadelic in a Tribute to Funk at the 46th annual Grammy Awards. They sang Shining Star solo, and then teamed up with Outkast to croon The Way You Move.
In the summer of 2004, Earth, Wind & Fire signed an exclusive record deal with Sanctuary Urban Records Group, owned by Mathew Knowles, father and manager of rhythm and blues musician Beyoncé. On December 8th 2004 Earth, Wind & Fire presented Destiny's Child with the Artist Achievement Award at the 2004 Billboard Music Awards.
EWF released in 2004 the Grammy Award-nominated single "Show Me the Way", featuring Raphael Saadiq. On May 4th 2004 Earth, Wind and Fire contributed to the Jimi Hendrix Tribute Album Power of Soul: A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix with a cover of Voodoo Child (Slight Return).The band collaborated with Roots Manuva to record the single Love Together for the album Unity - The Official Athens 2004 Olympic Games Album .
On September 28, 2004, Queen Latifah released her album The Dana Owens Album which featured Gary Bias and Bob Burns Jr. of the Earth, Wind and Fire Horns. The album reached number 16 and 11 on the The Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album charts and went gold.
On November 23rd, 2004 Kenny G released the album At Last...The Duets Album featuring Maurice White and Phillip Bailey on vocals on the track The Way You Move which was released as a single and went to number 12 on the Adult Contemporary Chart.
On December 11th 2004 Earth, Wind and Fire were honored at the first annual Grammy Jam held at the Wiltern Theater in Los Angeles with many artists of which included Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Sheila E, Miri Ben-Ari,George Duke, Kanye West and Randy Jackson performing EWF songs. The event saw celebrities of which included Pamela Anderson, Tim Allen, Prince,Mathew Knowles, Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Nick Cannon and Suzanne de Passe attend.
The single Show Me the Way eventually found its way onto the band's 23rd album Illumination , which was released on September 20, 2005. For this album EWF collaborated with musicians which included Will I Am, Kelly Rowland, Big Boi of Outkast and Brian McKnight. Illumination reached number 8 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Album Chart. The single Pure Gold from the album reached number 23 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best R&B Album in 2005. EWF was nominated for a Soul Train Music Award in the category R&B-soul album, group, band or duo for Illumination and also received a NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Duo or Group.
On February 6th, 2005, Earth, Wind and Fire performed at the Super Bowl XXXIX pregame show along with the Black Eyed Peas performing Where is the Love and Shining Star.
In 2004 Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago toured together which spawned the DVD Chicago/EWF: Live At The Greek Theatre was released on June 28th, 2005 . Chicago/EWF: Live At The Greek Theatre was certified Platinum just two months after its release. Chicago and EWF toured together again in 2005 and Earth, Wind & Fire collaborated with Chicago for a new recording of Chicago's ballad "If You Leave Me Now" released on Chicago's 2005 Love Songs compilation album .
On September 18, 2005, they performed along with the Black Eyed Peas as part of an opening act for the 57th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards. Their performance marked the first time a musical artist has opened at the annual Emmys Awards show.
On September 27, 2005, former Earth, Wind and Fire member and member of the Phenix Horns trombonist Louis Satterfield died. For the 2005 holiday season David Foster, Maurice White and Philip Bailey wrote the Christmas themed track Gather Round which was produced and arranged by Foster. The song was placed onto the album Sounds of the Season: The NBC Holiday Collection.
Maurice was the executive producer of an album released on March, 27th 2007 entitled "Interpretations-Celebrating the Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire". It featured cover versions of Earth, Wind and Fire's songs performed by artists such as Chaka Khan, Kirk Franklin, Lalah Hathaway, Mint Condition and Angie Stone. From this album renditions of "That’s The Way Of The World" performed by Dwele and Fantasy performed by Meshell Ndegeocello were Grammy nominated for Best Urban/Alternative Performance.
On April 25th 2007, the band was the opening act for the highly touted and publicized special edition of the reality TV series American Idol, "Idol Gives Back" where they performed a medley of Boogie Wonderland, Shining Star and September.
On December 11th 2007, Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert which took place in Oslo, Norway and was hosted by Kevin Spacey and Uma Thurman and also featured other performances by Melissa Etheridge, Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox and Kylie Minouge. The Nobel Peace Prize Concert was broadcast to over 100 countries.
Earth, Wind and Fire performed at the Viña del Mar Festival, in Viña del Mar, Chile on the opening night. The festival took place on February 20th 2008, and for their performance the public awarded them with the "Gaviota de Plata" or the Silver Seagull, which is the highest award that can presented to an artist performing at the festival..
On May 18th, 2008 Maurice White, Ralph Johnson, Philip Bailey and Verdine White each received an honorary degree from the Arts and Media College at Columbia College Chicago during the college's 2008 commencement exercises. Verdine and Philip both gave remarks during the ceremony which was followed by an impromptu performance of Shining Star by all four.
On August 25th EWF performed at the opening ceremony of the 2008 US Open which was hosted by Forrest Whitaker. The event commemorated the 40th anniversary of the founding of tennis’s Open Era with a parade of more than 25 former US Open singles champions.In November 2008 Verdine White was presented with Bass Player magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award by Nathan East .
Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the White House on February 22nd, 2009 at the Governors' Dinner which was the the first formal White House dinner hosted by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama..The band will tour once again with Chicago in 2009 . EWF are also planning to release a new album in 2009.
Impact
Earth, Wind & Fire's songs have been covered by artists such as the Jerry Garcia Band, Point Of Grace, D'Angelo, Lenny White, Patti LaBelle, The Manhattans,, Wynonna Judd , Yolanda Adams, Incognito (band),, Chaka Khan , Dionne Warwick, 112, theVienna Boys' Choir,, Herb Alpert , Musiq and Tito Puente.
Their songs have also been sampled by artists some of which include A Tribe Called Quest, Wyclef Jean, Jay-Z, Amerie, The Fugees, LL Cool J, De La Soul, Common, Queen Pen, Naughty by Nature, P Diddy, The Roots,, Will Smith , Cee-Lo , MC Lyte and Lisa Left Eye Lopes .
Some artists who name Earth, Wind & Fire as a major influence, inspiration or idol on themselves are Will I Am , Mary J Blige , Cherish , Prince ,Pharrell Williams, The Neptunes , Jon Secada, Wyclef Jean , Common, who has described EWF as one of the "greatest groups", Boney James Angie Stone , The All-American Rejects, Jesse McCartney , Mint Condition , Solange Knowles , Babyface ,Outkast , The D.E.Y. , Marc Broussard , Omarion Eric Benet , Sheila E , Marcus Miller , Erykah Badu , Jamie Foxx , Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy , Brian Culbertson , Brooke Hogan , Meshell Ndegeocello , Wynton Marsalis and Mario .
Miles Davis is reported to have described EW&F as "my favourite" and "the best". Quincy Jones has proclaimed himself to be the "biggest fan of Earth, Wind & Fire since day one."
In the movie Baadasssss! based on Melvin Van Peebles's struggles to film and distribute Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song directed by his son Mario Van Peebles was released at the Sundance Film Festival and the movie featured the actor Khalil Kain portraying a young Maurice White leading the early incarnation of Earth, Wind & Fire .
American President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are big fans of Earth, Wind & Fire
Awards
Tribute Albums
1997: Various Artists - Smooth Elements: Smooth Jazz Plays the Songs of Earth, Wind & Fire.
2004: The Lenny White Project-Tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire.
2004: Various Artists - Smooth Sax Tribute to Earth, Wind and Fire.
2004: Devoted Spirits - Devoted Spirits: A Tribute to Earth Wind and Fire.
2007: Various Artists-Interpretations: Celebrating The Music Of Earth, Wind & Fire.
Discography
Top Ten singles
The following singles reached the Top Ten on either the United States Billboard Hot 100 pop singles chart or the United Kingdom UK Singles Chart.
Top Ten albums
The following albums reached the Top Ten on either the United States Billboard 200 pop albums chart or the United Kingdom UK Albums Chart.
See also
External links
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