Funk · Soul · R&B
Funk, harmony and a message of light.
The biography
Earth, Wind & Fire is an American funk, soul and R&B band led by Maurice White, which emerged from Chicago in the early 1970s, with a first album in 1971 and a first hit in 1974 with “Mighty Mighty.” The mid-1970s brought a breakthrough with the album That’s the Way of the World (1975), with “Shining Star” and “Sing a Song.” The late 1970s brought “September” (1978), “Boogie Wonderland” (1979, with The Emotions) and “After the Love Has Gone” (1979). The early 1980s brought “Let’s Groove” (1981, from Raise!), keeping a disco-funk rhythm on the radio.
The band’s sound is built on brass, on harmony — falsetto and tenor voices answering each other — and on a positive message. Their songs are about light, about dancing, about love and about looking up, even when the subject is sad. That combination of musical skill and uplifting feeling is why Earth, Wind & Fire belongs alongside Kool & the Gang in Past Tunes: two great funk bands, different in sound, alike in their belief that dance music can also be music with a message.