Earth, Wind & Fire is an American R&B band led and founded by Maurice White. Formed in Chicago, Illinois, in 1969, the band's all embracing musical vision has seen them fuse Latin, Funk, Soul, Jazz, Pop, Rock, African Music and other genres into one unique sound. The band is also known for the the dynamic sound of their horn section and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Phillip Bailey's falsetto and Maurice White's tenor. The African influence on Earth, Wind & Fire's music can be partially heard through their use of the kalimba also known as the african thumb piano.
Also known as EWF or the Elements, Earth, Wind & Fire has received seventeen 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.
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.link 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 who would go on to be a part of the Young-Holt Unlimited and Eldee Young was also replaced by bassist Cleveland Eaton. Maurice as part of the Ramsey Lewis Trio played on nine of the group's albums some of which included Wade in the Water,from which the track Hold It Right They 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 which he found in a Chicago drum store 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.
The band's 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. With only Verdine left Maurice decided to re-form the group and he started holding auditions.
In 1972 Maurice added to the band vocalist Jessica Cleaves who was a 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 elements also remade the Bread hit "Make It With You".
The album Head to the Sky, was released in the spring of 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. Woolfolk had been busy in New York studying sax with sax maestro Joe Henderson and was about to start 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 gave the group their first two legitimate hit singles which were "Evil", co-written by Maurice and Philip, and the title track, "Keep Your Head To The Sky," both reaching the top 30 R&B and top 60 pop charts. Jessica Cleaves left the band after the release of Head to the Sky.
In 1974, the album Open Our Eyes which was another commercially successful Lp. In May 1974, the single "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. Producer and songwriter 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 6, 1974, Earth, Wind & Fire performed at the California Jam, a west coast rock festival which attracted an audience of 200,000.
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 soundtrack to the film entiltled That's the Way of the World nevertheless fostered Earth, Wind & Fire's true breakthrough.
This album also included the hit singles "Shining Star", "Reasons" and That's the Way of the World. Through the album 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 Japanese 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. With the success of That's The Way Of The World the band could afford a full horn section which had become an integral part of the Earth, Wind & Fire's sound called the Phenix Horns which was comprised of saxophonist Don Myrick, trombonist Louis Satterfield, both from Maurice's Chicago session dates and trumpeters Rahmlee Davis and Michael Harris.
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 album comprised mostly of live concert material from their 1974 and 1975 tours which stayed at number one on the pop and R&B charts for three weeks. In addittion with the release of Gratitude the Phenix Horns got their first credits on an Earth, Wind & Fire album.
Aside from his EWF duties, Maurice created and developed Kalimba Productions in late 1975, and had signed two acts vocalist Deniece Williams,a former member of Stevie Wonder's Wonderlove backup group and the r&b girl group The Emotions, who had a run of hits with Stax Records from 1969 to 1974. Maurice also loaned Earth Wind & Fire's signature Phenix Horns to his other production projects and put on tour some of the acts that he was also producing at the time, such as The Emotions, Deneice Williams and Ramsey Lewis. Also in 1975 Earth, Wind & Fire won Down Beat magazine's Readers Poll for favorite Rock/Blues Group.
In 1976, after helping co-produce and arrange Earth Wind & Fire's incomplete Spirit album, Deniece Williams's album "This Is Niecy", and The Emotions first Columbia Records album "Flowers", Charles Stepney died of a heart attack on May 17, 1976, in Chicago at the age of 43. He was survived by his wife Rubie, his three daughters Eibur, Charlene and Chante and his parents and brother.
Maurice then took over the production duties of Kalimba Productions for Earth, Wind & Fire and completed the recording of Spirit which was released in October 1976. Included on Spirit were 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 the band took it into the studio and recorded the song.
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 with his assistant an unknown by the name of David Copperfield and their concerts were also choreographed by George Faison.
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. In 1978 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 reaching number 1 and number nine on the R&B and Pop singles charts respectively.
1978 was also the year that Maurice and managers Cavallo and Ruffalo worked out a deal for the launch of a new record label called The American Recording Company (ARC) 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 23, 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 link. They donated their royalties from the song to UNICEF.
1979 saw the release of I Am, the group's ninth album, their seventh for Columbia, and their 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 went to the number 2 spot on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts and won the Best R&B Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group award at the 1980 Grammys.
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 the phenix horns, 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".
The platinum Raise!, EWF's eleventh album was released in the fall of 1981 and it featured their million selling 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. Maurice put the band on hiatus in 1983 after the synthesized Electric Universe was released in late 1983 to a poor critical and commercial reception. Maurice White attributes the album's lack of success to its release so quickly after Powerlight.
During their hiatus, Philip Bailey released his second and most successful solo project, the gold album Chinese Wall which also featured the Phenix Horns. The first single from that Phil Collins produced album, a duet with Collins called "Easy Lover", sold over a million copies and also reached 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. During this period Bailey also released a number of gospel albums, and one of them entitled Triumph won him a Grammy for Best Male Gospel Vocal Performance.
Also, during the hiatus, Verdine White worked behind the scenes, writing and directing videos. He produced the Level 42 album,Standing in the Light 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. He also released a solo album entitled Maurice White in 1985 that included a cover of "Stand by Me" 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 singles charts for two weeks and was certified gold in the UK 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, which went onto number 3 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and number 33 on the The Billboard 200. Featured on the album was a song penned by a unknown songwriter by the name of Skylark called "System of Survival". Released as a single the song became a hit reaching number one on the Billboard R&B charts and Dance charts, and another single called "Thinking Of You" peaked at number one and number 3 on the R&B and Dance charts.
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 gained a Grammy nomination 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 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 role of onstage leader of the band. The studio album In the Name of Love was released in 1997 on Pyramid Records. EWF performed at the 1997 Montreux Jazz Festival and gave an encore performance the following year. Their performance was released on a DVD entiltled Earth, Wind & Fire: Live At Montreux 1997. In 1999 Earth, Wind & Fire performed on the A&E Network show Live by Request link.
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.[7]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 South Lawn of the White House, held 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 Grammy nominated for Best Traditional R&B Vocal Performance. The Promise went to number 19 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums charts.
On Sunday 8th February, 2004 Earth, Wind and Fire with Maurice White showing up performed alongside Outkast, 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 link.
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 Earth, Wind & Fire on the track The Way You Move which was released as a single and went to number 12 on the Adult Contemporary singles 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 where several artists perform EWF songs of which included Stevie Wonder, Yolanda Adams, Sheila E, Miri Ben-Ari,George Duke, Kanye West and Randy Jackson performing EWF songs. The event also 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 and number 32 on the . 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 in Jacksonville, Florida along with the Black Eyed Peas. The peformance consisted of Where is the Love and the classic Shining Star. In March of 2005 EWF performed in Russia for the first time.
In 2004 Earth, Wind & Fire and Chicago embarked upon a joint tour. The tour gave rise to the DVD Chicago/Earth, Wind & Fire - Live at the Greek Theatre which was released on June 28th, 2005 and 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" that was included on Chicago's 2005 compilation album Love Songs.
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 worked with Gregory Hines's brother, Maurice Hines in 2006 to release the Broadway play Hot Feet which was a a jukebox musical featuring the music of Earth, Wind & Fire. White wrote several new songs along with Allee Willis for the play.
On February 11th 2007 EWF along with Mary J Blige and Ludacris performed the song Runaway Love at the 49th Grammy Awards.
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.linklink.
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.
Let's Groove
Boogie Wonderland
Getaway
fantasy
Got to get you into my life
Serpentine Fire
MIGHTY MIGHTY
September
