Earth, Wind & Fire - That’s The Way Of The World (1975)

Soul, funk & groove
Funk, Afro-beat, soul and jazzy horns melt in this rather agreeable work by EW&F. The band had at least two peculiarities : three lead singers (Maurice & Verdine White and Philip Bailey), and most members played percussion besides their own main instrument.
Little song-by-song review.

→ “Shining Star”  is most appropriately titled : it's one of the shining stars of the album indeed, a track of pure funk with an Afro-flavored bubbling guitar intro and nice lead guitar solos (Al McKay, Johnny Graham), R'n'B style horns, appealing harmony vocals by Maurice & Verdine White and Philip Bailey, a good dancing title with a chorus a little too disco though. You already notice Verdine's efficient bass, one of the backbones of EW&F's funk.

→ “That’s The Way Of The World” : a mellow funky soul (a bit too soul to my taste) enlightened by superb vocal harmonies and warm horns. A tune that leaves its imprints in your ears.

→ “Happy Feelin’” : solid groove, exciting horns, African flavor with Maurice brilliant idea to use a kalimba (also called “mbira”, it's a small portable lamellaphonic instrument originally used by the Shonas of Zimbabwe), superb bass, nice vocals… My favorite !

→ “All About Love” : a romantic soul song, not really my cup of tea tough filled with cool jazzy horns and a bit of jazz-rock feel in Larry Dunn's clavinet, and, I must acknowledge it, finely sung even if in a style far from my usual taste.

→ “Yearnin’ Learnin’” : introduced by piano (Dunn again), another horn-filled funky number featuring the special vocal texture of the lead singer (whoever he is, is his voice processed through some sonic effects device ?)

→ “Reasons” : too mellow, too soul and too over-dubbed with strings for me so I won't comment further.

→ “Africano” : An appealing Afro-funk instrumental introduced by the exotic atmosphere of a flute and the kalimba before the sudden surge of percussion and Dunn's Moog synthesizer under the jazz-rock influence of the Herbie Hancock's Head Hunters period, jazz sax funky bass and wah-wah guitar keeping a stomping beat. The second highlight of the album.

→ “See The Light” : in the same vein as the previous track, with the same jazz-rock flavor, this time a la Return to Forever, the song turns to jazzy-soul vocals before strangely ending with an African village griot singing a joyful kind of local rap.

If I do not appreciate the mellow soul side of EW&F, on the contrary most of their funky and Afro-funky numbers sound good to me. ■

Live videos... are better than long speeches
■ Documentary : https://youtu.be/P_ElzVC8TF8

► EW&F live in the 1970s

■ In 1973 (with Maurice White on the Kalimba) : https://youtu.be/9JfoBbXTm7s
■ Landover, MD, 1976 (bad quality image + dreadful habit of film shooters in those times to concentrate essentially on the singers !) : https://youtu.be/1FGHRDgGliw
■ In 1978 :
→ Pt 1 : https://youtu.be/78Pm5Gjv5To
→ Pt 2 : https://youtu.be/z-24BpgggoY
■ Budokan, Tokyo, Japan, 1979 : https://youtu.be/KiOZKkhsfiw
■ Essen, Germany, 1979 : https://youtu.be/g8OdFpJ1sJQ
■ Rockpalast, Germany, 1979 : https://youtu.be/YphvwouCevA

► In the 1980s and 1990s
■ Brazil, 1980 : https://youtu.be/VFDFjS5_WXs
■ Barcelona, Spain, 1988 : https://youtu.be/o5dFvfmsJtg
■ Japan, 1988 : https://youtu.be/DjjMjmGahHQ
■ Japan, 1995 : https://youtu.be/GUr4SIADI34
■ Montreux Festival, 1997 : https://youtu.be/wjYS0x2fZnc
■ Jazz à Vienne, France, 1997 : https://youtu.be/g0CF-FcjjU8
■ Live '99 by Request, 1999 : https://youtu.be/0mTLd9dpzas

 

 ► Fromm 2000 to 2022

■ Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, Greek Theatre, Los Angeles, 2004 :
→ 1h32 version : https://youtu.be/WrcsapiYiqs
→ 2h36 version : https://youtu.be/Pqi3WOIwjA8
■ Viña del Mar Fest., Chile, 2008 : https://youtu.be/mK_55Y3gjqc
■ International Jazz Festival, Singapore, 2014 : https://youtu.be/0B89ORyiahE
■ Jakarta, Indonesia, 2014 : https://youtu.be/fuDF_f_qpuI
■ Caribbean Sea Jazz Festival, Aruba Island, 2015 : https://youtu.be/LNfZYy6jGlc
■ North Sea Jazz fest., Rotterdam, Holland, 2016 : https://youtu.be/0WTjeeBiY9c
■ Glastonbury Fest., UK, 2017 : https://youtu.be/yfxq1iXw_NM
■ Austin, TX, 2018 : https://youtu.be/qRRwTr1PgrA
■ Las Vegas, 2018 : https://youtu.be/M-APvm3G5lA
■ Anaheim, CA, 2020 : https://youtu.be/0xHarkMkWLI
■ Full Concert, 2021 : https://youtu.be/5o5trkUeehg
■ Temecula, CA, 2021 : https://youtu.be/wmlwY8t0QIg
■ El Paso, TX, 2022 : https://youtu.be/PC6fUE2_740
■ Chile, 2022 : https://youtu.be/5UclQmOXpPw
■ Honolulu, HI, 2022 : https://youtu.be/8b9iWeZ9pPA

The White Brothers