Happy Birthday, Maurice White | AAM

Earth Wind and Fire’s founder, main songwriter, and co-lead vocalist

Seven Grammys, including for his “Got to Get You into My Life”

Maurice White was an American singer, musician, songwriter, bandleader, and record producer. He was best known as the founder, leader, main songwriter and chief producer of the band Earth, Wind & Fire, also serving as the band’s co-lead singer with Philip Bailey. Members Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay are known for their signature sound of fusing Pop, R&B, Rock, Latin, Funk, Jazz and African Music to win numerous awards.

Described as a “visionary” by Vibe and a “mastermind” by Variety, White was nominated for a total of 22 Grammys, of which he won seven. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame as a member of Earth, Wind & Fire, and was also inducted individually into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

White also worked with musical acts such as Deniece Williams, Cher, The Emotions, Barbra Streisand, Ramsey Lewis, and Neil Diamond.

Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, on December 19, 1941. He grew up in South Memphis, where he lived with his grandmother in the Foote Homes Projects and was a childhood friend of Booker T. Jones and David Porter. Along with Jones, White formed a “cookin’ little band” while attending Booker T. Washington High School. He also made frequent trips to Chicago to visit his mother, Edna, and stepfather, Verdine Adams, who was a doctor and occasional saxophonist.

During his teenage years, White moved to Chicago where he studied at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, and played drums in local nightclubs. In 1962 he joined The Jazzmen, a student jazz trio at Crane Junior College in Chicago, Illinois formed by Louis Satterfield on trombone, Charles Handy on trumpet, and Don Myrick on alto saxophone.

The Jazzmen later became the Pharaohs. Satterfield, White, and Handy became studio musicians at Chess Records in Chicago. While at Chess, he appeared, as a drummer, on the records of artists like Etta James, Chuck Berry, Rotary Connection, Junior Wells, Sonny Stitt, Muddy Waters, the Impressions, the Dells, Betty Everett, Willie Dixon, Sugar Pie DeSantoand Buddy Guy. White also played the drums on Fontella Bass‘s “Rescue Me” (with Satterfield on bass), Billy Stewart‘s “Summertime” and Jackie Wilson‘s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher“.

In June 1966, he left Chess and the Pharaohs to join the Ramsey Lewis Trio, replacing Isaac “Red” Holt as the group’s drummer. Holt and bassist Eldee Young left to form Young-Holt Unlimited. Young was also replaced by Cleveland Eaton. As a member of the Trio, Maurice played on several of their albums.

One of these was 1966’s Wade in the Water. The album track “Hold It Right There” went on to win a Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Group. With the Trio, White also played on 1966’s The Movie Album and 1967’s Goin’ Latin. He also performed on the Trio’s 1968 LPs Dancing in the Street, Up Pops Ramsey Lewis, Mother Nature’s Son and Maiden Voyage. While in the group White was introduced in a Chicago drum store to the African thumb piano or kalimba. The track “Uhuru” on the Trio’s 1969 LP Another Voyage featured the first recording of White playing the kalimba.

In 1969, White left the Trio and joined his two friends, Wade Flemons and Don Whitehead, to form a songwriting team who wrote songs for commercials in the Chicago area. The three friends got a recording contract with Capitol Records and called themselves the Salty Peppers. They had a moderate hit in the Midwest area with their single “La La Time”, but their second single, “Uh Huh Yeah”, was not as successful. White then moved from Chicago to Los Angeles, and altered the name of the band to Earth, Wind & Fire, the band’s new name reflecting the elements in his astrological chart.

Earth, Wind & Fire

With Maurice as the bandleader, co lead singer and producer of most of the band’s albums, EWF became an acclaimed as well as illustrious group, being bestowed with six Grammy Awards out of 17 nominations, a star on the Hollywood Boulevard Walk of Fame, and four American Music Awards. What’s more the group’s albums have sold over 90 million copies worldwide. Accordingly with the band Maurice was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, The Songwriters Hall of Fameand The NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame.

White immersed a sense of eclecticism to the band’s recordings, conceptualizing their stage portrayals whilst crafting the vocal interplay between his tenor and Philip Bailey’s falsetto. As a musician he aided the kalimbabeing brought into wider circles by incorporating its sound into the band’s music. He was also responsible for the inclusion of a full horn section, at first, the Phenix Horns and later on the Earth, Wind & Fire Horns.

During 1994 Maurice halted his regular tours with the band but still occasionally appeared on stage. Onwards he retained his executive control of Earth, Wind and Fire and remained active in the music business, in producing and recording with the band along with other musical artists.

A website entitled http://www.Startalk.orgwas also set up in 1999 in honour of Maurice. Maurice later spoke of an ongoing affliction with Parkinson’s disease. Artists such as Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, Boyz II Men, Smokey Robinson, Isaac Hayes, Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton and Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine posted messages upon the site for White.

With EWF he continued to appear at some auspicious occasions such as the 2004 Grammy Awards Tribute to Funk. He also performed on stage with the band and special guest Alicia Keys at Clive Davis‘ 2004 pre-Grammy party where they collectively sang “September”.

White was a married father of three children: one daughter, Hemeya, and two sons, Kahbran and Eden. He owned two homes in California, one in Carmel Valley and the other a four-level condominium in Los Angeles. He was a fan of basketball and tennis. He went by the nickname of “Reese”.His younger half-brother, Verdine White, an original member of Earth, Wind & Fire, still tours with the band as its bassist and a backing vocalist.Additionally, their brother Fred joined the band in 1974, when the band recorded “Devotion“.

On the morning of February 4, 2016, White died in his sleep at his Los Angeles home from the effects of Parkinson’s disease, at the age of 74. His brother Verdine said, “My brother, hero and best friend Maurice White passed away peacefully last night in his sleep. While the world has lost another great musician and legend, our family asks that our privacy is respected as we start what will be a very difficult and life-changing transition in our lives. Thank you for your prayers and well-wishes.”

Along with EW&F, Maurice White was posthumously bestowed with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at the annual Grammy Awards ceremony on February 15, 2016, at the Staples Center, Los Angeles, California. At the ceremony Stevie Wonderand Pentatonix performed a rendition of “That’s the Way of the World” in tribute to White.

Artists such as Stokley Williams, Richard Marx, Raphael Saadiq, Larry Blackmon, and Nate Dogg have also named White as an influence.