Earth, Wind & Fire still generates sparks at Nokia
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More...Earth, Wind & Fire still generates sparks at Nokia
12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, July 10, 2008
By MANUEL MENDOZA / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News
tvboymanny@yahoo.com
BRANDON THIBODEAUX/Special Contributor
Earth, Wind & Fire band members (from left) Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, David 'Tigger' Whitworth and Philip Bailey brought layered rhythms, punctuated by Mr. Bailey's trademark falsetto, to Nokia Theatre in Grand Prairie on Wednesday.
GRAND PRAIRIE - PBS should've been taping Wednesday night's Earth, Wind & Fire concert at Nokia Theatre. It would make a great pledge-drive special.
About 3,000 potential contributors swayed as the 11-piece band, including longtime members Philip Bailey, Verdine White and Ralph Johnson, re-created the 1970s of soul, funk and fringe. Transporting of the audience back almost 40 years began as soon as the houselights went down, as the stage became bathed in warm purples and blues, and the group launched into "Boogie Wonderland."
If cameras had been rolling, they would have been trained for much of the 90-minute show on bassist White, who rarely stopped pacing or bouncing around the stage. He was a ball of energy, shaking his finger and his backside at the crowd and flailing on the floor.
"Oh, goodness gracious," singer and percussionist Bailey said somewhere during the transition from "Serpentine Fire" to "Evil." "We got a party going on here."
The band didn't waste any time getting to the hits, following the stuttering Latin beat of "Boogie Wonderland" with the hit workouts "Sing a Song" and "Shining Star," the latter featuring the first of a series of tasty solos from the horn section and keyboardist-musical director Myron McKinley.
These solos revealed Earth, Wind & Fire's roots in jazz. Founder Maurice White, who no longer performs with the group live, started as a jazz drummer. At times, the show turned into a jam with little delineation between the end of one song and the start of another. Fueling the grooves were saxophonist Gary Bias, trumpeter Bobby Burns Jr. and trombonist Reggie Young.
Until Mr. Bailey took center stage midset and proved that his trademark falsetto was still in full working order, the vocals tended toward the underpowered. The group made up the difference with layered rhythms. It seemed like everyone was playing drums of one kind or another at one point or another.
Mr. Bailey started to build his case with a couple of ballads, "I'll Write a Song for You" and "After the Love Is Gone," which had some women in the audience levitating out of their seats. But it was a moment near the end of "Reasons" that sealed the verdict.
Mr. Bailey kept reaching for higher and higher notes until there appeared to be no more room on the musical scale. Then he took it just a little bit higher. A few times a night, it turns out, the most famous upper-register singer between the careers of Little Richard and Prince can still hit the stratosphere.
