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Earth,
Wind &
Fire
founder
Maurice
White
passes
at 74
By David
Bauder
and
Hillel
Italie
Associated
Press
NEW YORK
- Earth,
Wind &
Fire
founder
Maurice
White,
whose
horn-driven
band
sold
more
than 90
million
albums
and made
hits
like
"September,"
''Shining
Star"
and
"Boogie
Wonderland,"
died
Wednesday
at his
home in
Los
Angeles,
his
brother
Verdine
said.
White,
who was
74,
suffered
from
Parkinson's
Disease
and had
retreated
from the
public
even as
the band
he
founded
kept
performing.
"My
brother,
hero and
best
friend
Maurice
White
passed
away
peacefully
last
night in
his
sleep,"
Verdine
White,
also a
member
of the
band,
told The
Associated
Press on
Thursday.
"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."
Earth,
Wind &
Fire, a
nine-piece
band
centered
featuring
the two
White
brothers,
singer
Philip
Bailey
and the
distinctive
horn
section,
were
inducted
into the
Rock and
Roll
Hall of
Fame in
2000.
The
band's
most
successful
period
started
with the
1975
album
"That's
The Way
of The
World"
and
continued
through
the rest
of the
decade.
Other
hits
included
"Serpentine
Fire,"
''That's
the Way
of the
World"
and a
cover of
the
Beatles'
"Got to
Get You
Into My
Life."
Chris
Rock
tweeted
his
condolences
Thursday
with a
photo of
White
and the
lyrics,
"You
can't
hide
love."
Nile
Rogers
called
White
"one of
the most
amazing
innovators
of all
time" on
the
social
media
platform,
while
Diane
Warren
said
"this
world
just got
a lot
less
soulful."
White
publicly
revealed
he had
Parkinson's
at the
time of
the
band's
Hall of
Fame
induction,
but he
had
shown
symptoms
of the
neurological
disease
back in
the
1980s.
He
stopped
touring
with the
band in
1995
because
of
weariness
from the
road
combined
with his
health
problems.
White
said in
an
interview
with The
Associated
Press in
2000
that he
wanted
the
band's
music to
inspire
instead
of just
entertain.
"That
was the
whole
objective,
to try
to
inspire
young
people
to
believe
in
themselves
and to
follow
through
on their
ideas,"
he said.
"We've
touched
so many
people
with
these
songs."
A former
session
drummer,
White
founded
the band
Salty
Peppers
in the
Chicago
area in
the late
1960s
and had
some
modest
success
in the
Midwest.
After
relocating
to Los
Angeles
and
ditching
all of
the band
members
except
Verdine,
he
renamed
the
outfit
Earth,
Wind &
Fire
after
the
three
elements
in his
astrological
chart.
Bailey's
bright
falsetto
defined
many of
Earth,
Wind &
Fire's
hits.
"We
experienced
pure
magic
together,"
Bailey
said
during
the
band's
Rock and
Roll
Hall of
Fame
induction,
standing
next to
White.
The
band's
early
sound
was
jazzy,
but
evolved
into an
exuberant,
horn-driven
mix of
jazz,
funk,
gospel
and Big
Band
music.
Their
appeal
wasn't
just on
records
but on
stage,
their
concerts
a whirl
of
dancing,
fog
machines,
multi-colored
lights
and
glittery
costumes.
Earth,
Wind &
Fire
performed
everywhere
from the
Super
Bowl to
the
White
House.
Maurice
White
also had
a
substantial
side
career
producing
other
artists,
including
Barbra
Streisand
and
Cher. In
the
1970s,
he
co-wrote
and
co-produced
the
Emotions'
No. 1
hit
"Best of
My
Love."
White
was born
in
Memphis
in 1941,
the son
of a
doctor
and
grandson
of a New
Orleans
piano
player.
He
showed
musical
gifts at
an early
age,
studying
at the
Chicago
Conservancy.
During
the
1960s,
he
backed
Muddy
Waters,
the
Impressions
and
others
and
worked
as a
session
drummer
in
Chicago.
The band
performed
in the
movie,
"Sgt.
Pepper's
Lonely
Hearts
Club
Band"
and had
hits
with the
ballad
"After
the Love
Has
Gone,"
''All
'n'
All,"
''Let's
Groove"
and
"Fall in
Love
With
Me." The
band
took a
four-year
hiatus
in the
1980s
and then
returned,
its
primary
success
then on
the
road.
"We live
in a
negative
society,"
White
told
Newsweek
at the
height
of the
band's
success.
"Most
people
can't
see
beauty
and
love. I
see our
music as
medicine."
White's
memoir,
"Keep
Your
Head to
the Sky:
My Life
with
Earth,
Wind &
Fire,"
is
scheduled
to be
released
Sept. 13
by
Amistad.
The book
features
a
forward
by Steve
Harvey
and an
afterword
by David
Foster.
Earth,
Wind &
Fire are
to be
honored
at the
Grammy
Awards
on Feb.
15.
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