Yesterday one of the musicians died who influenced so many of my colleagues: Maurice White. I think all the big band people I knew were dreaming of playing in Earth Wind & Fire (EWF) when we were in our late teens and early twenties because of this cd. Maurice White and his younger brother Verdine White founded the band already in 1969. Maurice White started out as a jaz drummer. In the first albums you still hear a big jazz and latin influence, also in the instrumental tunes. Maurice was not "only" a drummer, he wrote most of the tracks, producer, arranger, band leader and last but not least co-lead singer together with Philip Bailey. This cd from 1996 is what got my generation into: "EWF: Plugged in and live", also called "Live in Velfarre" or "Greatest Hits Live". Appearently they sold the material to a couple of rcord labels. By my knowledge it's all the same concert, with Morris Pleasure on keys and Scott Mayo on sax. Hard to find these days but people uploaded it to Youtube, so we can enjoy it here:
All their big hits who are so universal and made so many people dance throughout the last third of last century and still do. It's incredible. Put a EWF tune on any party and people will start dancing or keep dancing.
This is a tune called Kalunga Dance, from my latest album Dark Horse, order it here or buy it at a concert, the next one is Brebl, Nijmegen 1 day after my birthday on 16th of April! Hope to see you there!In this performance, we featured percussionist/vocalist and world citizen Helene Jank. She lived and worked in Brazil for quite a while and I really think it's audible here. I love the way she and the band creates this moment of space within the concert and this is also why - I think - visiting concerts is important because then you get to experience the whole context of the concert. How is the program build up, how does the audience respond and what does music makes you feel. More info:Susanne Alt: sax, Matthijs Geerts and Ike van Bergen: keys, Thomas Pol: bass, Yoràn Vroom: drums, Helene Jank: percussion Performed at 16th of January 2026 at Bimhuis, Amsterdam, Recorded by Onno Prillwitz Filmed by Robert Glass and Albert Nooij. - Yesterday one of the musicians died who influenced so many of my colleagues: Maurice White. I think all the big band people I knew were dreaming of playing in Earth Wind & Fire (EWF) when we were in our late teens and early twenties because of this cd. Maurice White and his younger brother Verdine White founded the band already in 1969. Maurice White started out as a jaz drummer. In the first albums you still hear a big jazz and latin influence, also in the instrumental tunes. Maurice was not only a drummer, he wrote most of the tracks, producer, arranger, band leader and last but not least co-lead singer together with Philip Bailey. This cd from 1996 is what got my generation into: EWF: Plugged in and live, also called Live in Velfarre or Greatest Hits Live. Appearently they sold the material to a couple of rcord labels. By my knowledge it's all the same concert, with Morris Pleasure on keys and Scott Mayo on sax. Hard to find these days but people uploaded it to Youtube, so we can enjoy it here:All their big hits who are so universal and made so many people dance throughout the last third of last century and still do. It's incredible. Put a EWF tune on any party and people will start dancing or keep dancing.
