A Shining Star Eclipsed (5)

Born in Memphis, Tennessee 1944 Maurice White had formed a band in his schooldays with his best friend Booker T. Jones (of Booker T & The MGs) before moving to Chicago in 1960. In the early sixties he became a house drummer at Chess records where he met Stepney playing for a wide variety of artists, including Ramsey Lewis who invited him to tour with him as a member of his trio. Over the next few years Maurice continued to perform session work, he used the money he gained from Ramsey to finance his own production company, and in 1969 Lewis split to form his own group, The Salty Peppers. After some initial releases, the group signed to the Warner label as Earth Wind & Fire, producing gritty funk that reflected their original name. In 1971 they performed the soundtrack for the seminal Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (released on Stax), which began the Blaxplotation trend in cinema. Despite some encouraging success disillusionment and internal conflicts split the band.

Maurice reformed the band with only his brother Verdine remaining from the original line-up for a debut LP with the CBS label, Last Days and Time (1972). With new members like Phillip Bailey and Larry Dunn, prominent use of the Kalimba instrument, integral elements to their sound during the seventies, it also signified a definite change in direction. Alongside the tight funk of Power and Time Is On Your Side came two unusual choices for a soul band to cover, Bread's M.O.R. ballad Make It With You and Pete Seeger's Where Have All The Flowers Gone, both recreated in a beautifully soulful tone. When you consider that the album also features interludes between the songs Maurice's new direction begins to sound rather familiar. What goes around ...? A sign of the high regard Maurice held for Stepney. In Maurice's words, "He worked on all those sessions with The Dells, Rotary Connection. He was my buddy ... and he was also one of my main mentors. He was the guy who gave me the idea of us doing musical interludes on our albums. To me, he was like the professor."⁶

BACK · 1 · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · NEXT