Remembering Maurice
29th February 2016 · 0 Comments
By Edmund W. Lewis
Editor
It’s hard to imagine a world without Earth, Wind & Fire founder, master songwriter, producer and musician Maurice White. Fortunately, I don’t have to.
His irrepressible spirit and musical treasures will forever be with us.
The prolific, innovative artist and musical mastermind who inspired music lovers around the world for more than four decades departed this life on Feb. 3, 2016 after a lengthy illness that took away his voice and prevented him from performing with the wildly popular group that some simply called The Elements. EW&F featured one of the most amazing musical ensembles on the planet and songs that elevated the heart and mind and forced anyone within earshot to hit the closest available dance floor.
Each of us owes Maurice White a major debt of gratitude for making that happen.
Without a doubt, Maurice White was a musical genius. But he was so much more.
He was a gifted wordsmith, inspired musician and masterful producer who had an innate ability to tap into the musical legacy of our African forebears to deliver dynamic, organic Black music that still has people all over the world dancing, finger-popping, swaying and wondering how this music and its creator came to be.
Maurice White was born in Memphis, Tennessee, a city named for Menefer, the capital city of ancient Kemet (Egypt). Just as the Nile River is the lifeblood and cultural superhighway of Egypt, Memphis is nestled along America’s own Nile, the Mighty Mississippi River. It is not likely that the significance of being born in Memphis, where a colossal state of the Pharaoh Rameses looms on the horizon, escaped Maurice White. In Menefer, a museum dedicated to the memory of Rameses can be found.
This connection might in part explain Maurice White’s use of Egyptian pyramids and other African symbols like the ankh, obelisk and Eye of Heru (Horus) on album covers and as part of the stage set-up during live performances.
After studying at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, White became a session drummer for Chess Records and later played with the Ramsey Lewis Trio.
In 1969, he formed his own band in Chicago, the Salty Peppers. He later changed the name to Earth, Wind & Fire after moving to Los Angeles. The only two original members from the Salty Peppers were Maurice and his younger brother, bassist Verdine White.
White chose the name Earth, Wind & Fire as a nod to his astrological chart, which had no water signs.
In addition to playing drums, White was an inspired vocalist whose voice made Earth, Wind & Fire one of the most recognizable and beloved bands on the planet. He also showed great skill at playing the kalimba, an African instrument that is best described as a “thumb piano.”
In his book Shining Star, Earth, Wind & Fire member Philip Bailey talked about Maurice White’s holistic approach to life and the many ways he inspired his bandmates and people around the world. Bailey said that it was Maurice who led by example and encouraged his bandmates to nourish their minds, bodies and spirits with healthy, life-sustaining materials and to look beyond Western religion and culture for guidance, insight and inspiration.
“Under Maurice’s guidance, everyday life was a learning experience,” Bailey wrote. “It was a time of discovery… We might as well have been in college —it was such a hands-on educational journey.
“Maurice believed that music should be a positive force in people’s lives and help them rise in personal stature. When he explained such lofty ideas as maintaining the dignity of music, we band members were at first too young to know what that meant,” Bailey explained. “…Yet under Maurice’s guidance Earth, Wind & Fire did come to signal a new era in music. While Sly & The Family Stone achieved fame by wanting to take us to a higher level, Maurice was operating on a different level of ‘family.’ He wanted to take the listener to a higher plane of consciousness, not to a higher altered state. ‘Reese’s’ musical idea was grounded in love, personal power, spirituality, and lifting the consciousness of humanity.
“Our mission was to tell people, ‘Hey, you’re naturally high, and you can maintain that natural high by discovering who you are — by opening your Third Eye,’” Bailey wrote. “We weren’t just saying it, we were living it. …Maurice was the catalyst for all that. What we discovered through him is what we sang about.”
With Maurice White leading the way, Earth, Wind & Fire sang and danced their way into the hearts of people all over the world with funky, conscious, life-affirming music like “Devotion,” “Let’s Groove,” “That’s the Way of the World,” “Side By Side” and “Be Ever Wonderful.” The group led us down the path to spiritual and cultural enlightenment and empowerment with hits like “Happy Feelings,” “Keep Your Head to the Sky” “Africano” and “Drum Song,” reminding us along the way, as our Beloved Ancestors did in ancient Egypt that love and truth are written “In the Stone.”
And so generations of Black folks grew up grooving and listening to this legendary group whose music was the embodiment of love, truth, justice, spirituality, enlightenment and hope. The music, and the principles that produced it, sustained us through some very hard times in America and reminded us often that Black is not only beautiful — it is dynamic, immaculate and a gift from the Creator bestowed upon our Beloved Ancestors in the Cradle of Humanity and Civilization.
The Third Eye that Philip Bailey referenced in Shining Star and Earth, Wind & Fire often sang about is often represented in the imagery, culture and history of ancient Egypt by the god Horus (Heru), the son of Osiris and Isis, who avenges his father’s betrayal by Set, Osiris’ brother.
Maurice White also found references to the Third Eye in his study of Eastern philosophy and religion.
Is anyone really that surprised that the organizers of the Grammy Awards didn’t get it and didn’t understand who Maurice White was and what he brought to the planet?
With no disrespect to the late rocker David Bowie, who certainly has earned a place of honor in musical history, it was a slap in the face for Bowie to get such an elaborate tribute while Maurice White’s one-song tribute was a last-minute addition to the show. The glaring disparity of these two tributes only serves to underscore the importance of people of African descent celebrating and honoring their own.
Having said that, I join the tens of millions of people around the world whose lives and perspectives were transformed by the artistry, wisdom, vision and ingenuity of Maurice White. I thank him for giving us music that will never die and will continue to inspire, enlighten, empower and ennoble countless generations to come.
Because of Maurice White’s teachings and offerings, we have come to understand that it’s neither fair nor accurate to say that we have lost him. He has simply made his transition to a higher plane and now resides in the Village of the Ancestors.
While he is no longer physically present, his spirit continues to nourish and guide us and has already taken root in other songwriters and musicians who understand and respect the power of music to transform people’s lives and lead them down the path that will ultimately enable them to tap into their Third Eye.
Because of the many gifts he gave us and the position of honor he has earned in the Village of the Ancestors, I make a conscious decision to be happy about the path Maurice White chose rather than sad about the fact that he is no longer physically present. He is beyond the toil and troubles of this world and has returned to the Source.
I can’t even imagine the music he is making over there or what his arrival home must have been like. Nor can I imagine his first jam session in the Village of the Ancestors with the greatest of the greats like Donny Hathaway, Marvin Gaye, Duke Ellington, Etta James, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, George Duke, Otis Redding, Sam Cooke and many others who have reached the Golden Shore.
But I will certainly have a lot of fun trying to picture that eternal jam fest in my mind and thinking about the Beloved Ancestors greeting Maurice White with the chorus from his seminal hit “Mighty Mighty”:
“We are people of the Mighty, Mighty people of the sun. In our hearts lie all the answers to the truth you can’t run from.”
Thank you Maurice White for opening my eyes, reminding me to keep my head to the sky and for being who you were created to be.
This article originally published in the February 29, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
