Earth, Wind & Fire

funk · soul · disco

Earth, Wind & Fire is an American band formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969 by drummer, songwriter and producer Maurice White, who built it out of an earlier group called the Salty Peppers. Its music spans jazz, R&B, soul, funk, disco, pop, Latin and Afro-pop, setting Philip Bailey's falsetto against Maurice White's baritone over a horn section, kalimba and densely layered studio arrangements. The best-known lineup joined Maurice White with his brother Verdine White on bass, Bailey on vocals and percussion, Ralph Johnson on drums and percussion, Larry Dunn on keyboards, Al McKay on guitar, Andrew Woolfolk on saxophone and Fred White on drums. The sequence of albums running from That's the Way of the World in 1975, which produced the Hot 100 number one Shining Star, through Gratitude in 1975, Spirit in 1976, All 'n All in 1977, I Am in 1979 and Raise! in 1981 yielded Sing a Song, Getaway, Serpentine Fire, After the Love Has Gone and Let's Groove. With more than 90 million records sold worldwide, the group is among the best-selling bands of all time. It has won six Grammy Awards from seventeen nominations along with four American Music Awards, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000, and received Kennedy Center Honors in 2019. Maurice White stepped back from touring in the mid-1990s and died in 2016. The band continues to perform with Verdine White, Bailey and Johnson anchoring an expanded stage lineup of horn players, singers and rhythm musicians that reproduces the arrangements of the 1970s catalog largely as recorded.

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