Sheldon Taylor's Souls of Black Notes

                                                                   Earth Wind and Fire: Gratitude: (1975)                      1975 was Earth Wind and Fire's year. In March, they released breakthrough chart topper That's The Way of the World. 30 days later, it sold a million copies. Embarking on a triumphant tour in support  of the album, EWF sprinted past other funky contenders in the race for 70s R&B supremacy and emerged victorious. Eight months later, they dropped Gratitude--- a four-record double album of live performances with a couple new studio tracks thrown in for good measure. Gratitude captured the band in its arena-rocking album element. The crowd roared with approval at Philip Bailey's soaring vocals on Reasons and the band's drivin...

In his autobiography Hit Man: Forty Years Making Hits , Topping Charts and Winning Grammys , songwriter David Foster reflects on his encounter with friend and teacher Maurice White in the early Eighties. Foster was flying high, having made the jump from journeyman session man (he co-wrote Cheryl Lynn’s 1978 smash Got To Be Real ) to an in-demand super producer. Rejuvenating Chicago’s career, Foster turned the band with the wicked horn section into platinum power ballad kings.  Next up was a project with a certain country/pop superstar. Foster recalls sharing his success with White:   " I remember running into Maurice a few years later. I was producing something for Kenny Rogers at the time and I told Maurice about it, and he turned to me and said, “You know, I never get called for any of those jobs.” Are you kidding ? I said, with your track record! “No he said, I don’t get called for that kind of stuff.” And when I thought about it later, I understood what he...