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Los Angeles Times
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How Earth, Wind & Fire made its masterpiece
As a kid growing up with showbiz connections in New York City, Lenny Kravitz had already beheld some of music's most thrilling live acts by the time he was 10 or 11. 'I'd seen the Jackson 5, I'd seen James Brown, I'd seen Miles Davis,' the rock star recalls. 'I knew great performances. But this…,' he adds of a gig he caught at the Forum in Inglewood as a young newcomer to Los Angeles — 'this was something so deep and mystical and entertaining that it just blew my mind.' The concert was by Earth, Wind & Fire, which made the Forum something of a second home in the mid-1970s not long after Kravitz's mother, actor Roxie Roker, moved her and a preteen Kravitz to L.A. so she could take a role on TV's 'The Jeffersons.' A hard-touring nine-man R&B outfit masterminded by Maurice White, EWF had wowed countless audiences in the first half of the decade, not least the estimated 250,000 who saw the band play in 1974 at the fabled California Jam festival at the Ontario Motor Speedway. The group had created hits in the studio as well, scoring its first million-selling album with 1973's 'Head to the Sky' and crashing the upper reaches of Billboard's R&B chart with singles like 'Mighty Mighty' and 'Devotion.' Yet it wasn't until the moment Kravitz bore witness to — with the band on the road behind its sixth LP, 'That's the Way of the World' — that everything came together for Earth, Wind & Fire: the songs, the stagecraft, the charisma, the sex appeal, the message. 'I'd never seen anything like it,' Kravitz says. 'It was a full assault on all your senses. Having that record come out and then getting to see it live changed the way I perceived things.' Released in March 1975 — 50 years ago this month — 'That's the Way of the World' marked EWF's creative and commercial high point. The triple-platinum album was the band's first to top the all-genre Billboard 200, and it spawned the group's only No. 1 single in the explosive 'Shining Star,' which knocked 'He Don't Love You (Like I Love You)' by Tony Orlando and Dawn from atop the Hot 100 that May. At the Grammy Awards the next year, 'Shining Star' received the prize for R&B vocal performance by a duo or group — a win on the band's first nomination. 'Prior to that album, we were on our way,' says singer Philip Bailey, one of three core EWF members along with percussionist Ralph Johnson and bassist Verdine White who still play in the group. (Maurice White, Verdine's older brother, died at 74 in 2016.) 'We were in the process of discovering who we were and what we had. With 'That's the Way of the World,' you're hearing Earth, Wind & Fire in our stride.' You're also hearing an album that would help shape music for the next half-century. Originally conceived as the soundtrack for a now-forgotten B movie about the shady record industry, 'That's the Way of the World' laid crucial groundwork for the rise of Afrocentrism in R&B and for the establishment of the quiet storm radio format; its delicate string and horn arrangements look toward neo-soul while its blippy synth textures anticipate a generation of bedroom tinkerers. Emotionally, the LP strikes a tone of cautious optimism that reflected the advances of the Black Power movement and the long-awaited end of the Vietnam War. Yet to put it on today is to recognize a familiar feeling. 'It's scarred but hopeful,' Verdine White says — one reason EWF opened with the album's soothing title track when the band performed at January's FireAid concert benefiting victims of the recent L.A. wildfires. Beyond the title cut and 'Shining Star' — listen to the latter for Al McKay and Johnny Graham's crosscutting guitars and what Kravitz calls 'one of the funkiest and most intelligent bass lines ever' — standouts from 'That's the Way of the World' include the propulsive 'Happy Feelin'' and the jazzy 'Africano,' both with Maurice White on kalimba, and 'All About Love (First Impression),' which features Larry Dunn tripping out on a Moog keyboard (and sounds like it could've been recorded yesterday). The LP is also home to perhaps the most sumptuous of EWF's many romantic ballads: 'Reasons,' with Bailey floating around in his falsetto like a guy sky-high on desire. Is 'romantic' the right way to describe a song about two people facing the harsh light of day after a one-night stand? (In a memoir published after his death, Maurice White says that he and Bailey wrote 'Reasons' about their inability to resist the temptations of groupies he refers to as 'erection machines.') Bailey is sympathetic to folks who've used 'Reasons' for wedding dances or to celebrate anniversaries. 'Music is very seductive,' he says. 'I think it's the sensuality of the song that people buy into. But you listen to what it's saying and it's clearly about a booty call.' Indeed, Bailey looks back at 'That's the Way of the World' as an album about 'the loss of naiveté' experienced by the band's members, all of whom were in their early 20s at the time except for Maurice White, who was a decade older. Born in Memphis, where he grew up alongside future Stax Records royals David Porter and Booker T. Jones, Maurice White broke into the music business in Chicago in the 1960s, first as a staff musician at Chess Records — that's him playing drums on Fontella Bass' 'Rescue Me' — then as a drummer in Ramsey Lewis' pop-wise jazz trio. He formed Earth, Wind & Fire in Los Angeles and made two albums for Warner Bros.; neither did much, though they eventually brought the band (after a significant change in personnel) to the attention of Clive Davis, who signed EWF to Columbia Records in 1972. 'They just floored me,' Davis tells The Times of his initial encounter with the group as it opened a show for John Sebastian of the Lovin' Spoonful. The veteran executive, who's now 92, recalls flying the band to London — 'even though it was costly,' he says — to perform for Columbia's marketing, sales and promotion staff during the label's annual convention. 'I wanted them to see how dazzling they were in person,' he says. 'How else could you translate the uniqueness?' EWF spent its first three Columbia LPs honing its approach: the blend of funk grooves and rock riffs, the proto-self-help philosophizing, the ornate visual style that crossed psychedelia with Egyptology. 'Today it's hard to imagine a band of that size having multiple albums to develop and prove itself,' says Jason King, dean of USC's Thornton School of Music. Yet the way Verdine White sees it, the earlier work 'prepared the audience for what was coming' with 'That's the Way of the World.' Adds Johnson: 'It was the right album at the right time with the right record company.' To record the album, Earth, Wind & Fire returned to Colorado's remote Caribou Ranch, where the band had made 1974's 'Open Our Eyes' (and where Elton John cut the same year's 'Caribou'). 'It was like a winter wonderland,' Dunn told Red Bull Music Academy of the comfortably appointed studio in the Rocky Mountains. 'There were brass beds in the rooms and really expensive bear rugs on the floor.' This time, though, Maurice White elevated his friend Charles Stepney, whom he'd known since the Chess days and who'd worked on 'Open Our Eyes,' to a role as his co-producer; Bailey, Johnson and Verdine White all agree that Stepney pushed the group to a new level of creativity — and a new level of diligence. Stepney was 'definitely the dad in our group,' Bailey says in the 2001 documentary 'Shining Stars'; the band's focus was so intense, the singer tells The Times, that he had trouble processing the loss of his mother, who died during the recording process. 'I didn't really take the time to grieve until about a year later,' Bailey says, 'when I was on a plane and it all came down on me.' 'That's the Way of the World' accompanied a film of the same title directed by Sig Shore (who'd produced 1972's 'Super Fly') and starring Harvey Keitel as a hit-seeking record exec. Or at least it was meant to accompany the film, which also featured EWF's members onscreen: Having sensed that the movie might not shape up as a classic, Maurice White pushed to release the album months before the film premiered in theaters; he also hid the words 'original motion picture soundtrack' in fine print on the album's back cover. 'I thought that was pretty slick,' Johnson says with a laugh. The LP was an immediate hit, even in a field as crowded as R&B was in the mid-'70s. (As the story goes, 'Shining Star' inspired Stevie Wonder to write 'I Wish,' from 1976's 'Songs in the Key of Life.') USC's King says 'That's the Way of the World' represents a peak achievement of the 'open and assimilationist' funk that defined the era across demographic groups even as it spoke intimately to the lives of Black people navigating America in the wake of the struggle for civil rights. 'This is not a closed music,' King says. 'There's something that everybody can find their way into, and I think that's part of the reason it's lasted as long as it has.' Though Earth, Wind & Fire went on hiatus in 1984, the sound of 'Reasons' echoed through Prince's 'Adore' in 1987; Kravitz paid such loving homage to the album's title track in his 'It Ain't Over 'til It's Over,' from 1991, that someone on YouTube made a seamless mashup of the two songs. 'First time I heard his tune,' says a grinning Verdine White, 'I said, 'OK, Lenny.'' 'Shining Star' has been sampled by dozens of hip-hop acts, including MC Lyte and the Roots; in 2004, the Recording Academy inducted 'That's the Way of the World' into the Grammy Hall of Fame. And this summer, you're all but certain to hear several of the album's cuts when EWF plays the July Fourth Fireworks Spectacular over three nights at the Hollywood Bowl. Yet to hear Kravitz tell it, even those plaudits don't properly honor the group he credits with playing 'such a huge part in my education' starting with that show five decades ago at the Forum. 'They're like the Beatles to me,' he says. 'There will never be another Earth, Wind & Fire — nothing even close.'
Associated Press
26-03-2025
- Business
- Associated Press
EWF Invites Speaker Proposals for 2025 Annual Conference
Join 700+ Women Leaders in Denver This October to Inspire Change in Cybersecurity, Risk, and Privacy DENVER, CO, UNITED STATES, March 26, 2025 / / -- The Executive Women's Forum (EWF), a DSG Global Company, has officially opened the call for speakers for the highly anticipated 2025 Annual Conference. The EWF Annual Conference offers a unique opportunity for innovative women leaders and practitioners in cybersecurity, privacy, risk, and related fields to share their ideas, solutions, challenges, and best practices. The EWF Annual Conference brings together over 700 influential women from a wide range of sectors and industries. We invite you to take center stage and share your game-changing insights with this esteemed audience. The deadline to submit a proposal is April 11, 2025. Expanding on last year's theme of Igniting Impact, the 2025 event, coming to the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Denver, CO, October 15-17, 2025, is continuing to push forward progress with the theme, Accelerating Impact in Technology & Leadership: Bravely Moving Forward. The conference includes two primary tracks: - Leadership Track – Focuses on the topical areas of advancing careers, developing critical capabilities, and work-life wellness strategies. Attendees will learn from women in the community and leadership development consultants to acquire new skills and upskill to elevate their careers and life. - Technical Track – Brings industry experts to the stage to deliver timely insights and practical know-how across network security, AI, operations, risk management, privacy, and regulatory landscapes. Speakers share hard-won lessons from real-world scenarios to empower attendees to expand and improve their own practices and boost their career impact. Speaker opportunities include: - Standard Sessions – Traditional presentation or panel formats. - Wisdom Circles – 45-minute collaborative, moderated conversations with a small group of attendees that provide the opportunity for individuals and practitioners to come together and go deep on a topic of shared interest. - Lightning Talks – High-energy 4-minute talks that are meant to enlighten and inspire. Detailed information on the available formats, topic suggestions, and submission guidelines can be found on the EWF session submission page. The EWF Annual Conference draws professionals from industries such as financial services, technology, pharma, healthcare, insurance, and consulting. Attendees range from CISOs and CEOs to Engineers, Risk Managers, and Senior Analysts—all united by a shared commitment to advancing women's leadership in security, risk, privacy and related fields. Registration for the 2025 conference is now open, with early bird discounts available for a limited time. Visit the EWF Annual Conference website for more details and to register. Don't miss your chance to speak at one of the most respected forums for women in cybersecurity and business leadership. Submit your proposal by April 11, 2025, and join us in accelerating impactful change. # # # About the Executive Women's Forum on Information Security, Risk Management & Privacy: Founded in 2002, the Executive Women's Forum (EWF), a DSG Global Company, is the premier member organization dedicated to engaging, advancing, and developing women leaders in information security, risk management, privacy, and related industries. The EWF provides education, access, and opportunities to women at every stage of their careers. For more information, visit Danelia Argueta, Senior Director of Marketing Executive Women's Forum +1 904-429-3794 email us here Legal Disclaimer:
The Guardian
23-03-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘Many Rastas were chased away, but we're determined to remain': Ethiopia's religious community under threat
In 1999, Ras Paul, a west London DJ born to Jamaican parents, sold part of his voluminous vinyl collection to buy a plot of land and build a house in Shashamene, 125 miles south of Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa. Seven years earlier, he had become a Rastafarian, around the time of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie, whom the religion reveres as the Messiah. 'As an Ethiopian descendent, I wanted to come home,' he says. 'It's the place I felt I belong.' Paul was not alone. At its peak, more than 2,500 Rastafarians from around the world moved to Shashamene. Recently, though, the Rastafarian community's relations with the locals have come under strain. Shashamene is in Oromia, Ethiopia's biggest and most populous region. Since 2018, Oromia has been gripped by an ethnic insurgency that claims the Oromo people are marginalised in Ethiopia's federation. It has also seen protests over political representation and land, including a particularly violent outbreak in 2020. Newly established Protestant churches have also taken aim at the beliefs of Rastafarians and their use of cannabis. Newcomers have struggled to secure the right to stay in Ethiopia. Others who have been here for decades are forced to live illegally because the immigration authorities will not renew their documents. Several Rastafarians are fighting legal battles with locals who are trying to evict them from their land. Faced with these hurdles, the Rastafarian community is preparing to submit a petition to the government, claiming their rights are not recognised. For many people here, the image of Haile Selassie and even Ethiopia's national colours of red, green and yellow – both ubiquitous in Rastafarian culture – are not symbols of anti-colonial black liberation but of imperial oppression. Local people risk arrest for displaying the old flag of Haile Selassie's empire. 'Before, I was proud to go out wearing red, gold and green,' says Paul. 'Now I hesitate to wear it, big time. Even the church can't fly it in Oromia.' The presence of Rastafarians in Shashamene stretches back to fascist Italy's occupation of Ethiopia in 1935-1941. Haile Selassie, a devout Orthodox Christian, did not believe himself divine and tried to disabuse his worshippers of the idea. But after he regained his throne, the emperor granted 500 acres of crown land in Shashamene to 'black people of the world' who had campaigned in support of Ethiopia. Pan-Africanists from the Caribbean and the US, including black Jews and Muslims, settled there in 1955 as part of the Ethiopian World Federation (EWF), a body established in New York to lobby for Haile Selassie. The first Rastafarians did not arrive until the following decade, galvanised by the Ethiopian emperor's historic state visit to Jamaica in 1966. At the time, the Caribbean island was suffering from drought; when the Ethiopian emperor arrived, it finally started to rain. For many, this confirmed his divinity. Haile Selassie was deposed by a Marxist-Leninist military junta in 1974 and murdered a year later. Symbols associated with the emperor were suppressed. The land granted to the EWF was confiscated, but Rastafarians were still allowed to settle in Shashamene as part of a sweeping collectivisation drive that gave land from the aristocracy to the peasantry. 'My parents came here at that time as farmers and land was given to them,' says Maurice Lee, 46, who was born in Shashamene. He switches effortlessly between Jamaican-accented English and Amharic, Ethiopia's main language. Today his family run a Caribbean restaurant on the plot. Restrictions eased when communism ended in 1991. A year later, the centenary of Haile Selassie's birth saw a huge wave of 'repatriations' to Shashamene. However, with the land grant gone, new arrivals had to buy land as investors or rent properties. Many found it difficult to secure residence permits and drifted away. Today, the community is fighting to reclaim the land granted by Haile Selassie. They face an uphill battle. When the emperor gifted the land, Shashamene was a roadside settlement of a few thousand people. Now it is a sprawling boom town of about 210,000, full of hastily built houses and half-finished roads. The original 500 acres are no longer vacant fields but are populated by shops, homes and government offices. 'We are not living here as we are supposed to be living,' says George Isles at the EWF headquarters in Shashamene, a building bedecked with red, green and yellow and located behind a petrol station on a busy road, where heavy-goods vehicles trundle amid swarms of tuk-tuks. Isles, a carpenter, was born in Hammersmith and grew up in Montserrat. He arrived in 1992 to help build the EWF's office and never left. The teachings of Marcus Garvey, the spiritual lodestar of Rastafarianism, who founded the Back to Africa movement, informed his decision to stay. 'Africa is where we originate as black men,' says Isles. 'We came to the western world as slaves. So to get to know ourselves, we have to go home – and home is Africa.' Alex Reina, a French Rastafarian who came to Shashamene in 2004, agrees: 'Ethiopia was the only black country to resist colonialisation,' he says. 'It makes sense for us, the descendants of black slaves, to attach ourselves to Ethiopia.' Reina runs the Zion Train Lodge in Shashamene with his wife, Sandrine. He says it 'was very scary to be a Rasta man and wear red, green and gold' during the protests of 2020, but tensions have eased. That year, they had to go to court to gain recognition that they owned their land, which the previous tenant tried to reclaim. 'The land gifted by His Majesty is occupied by local people these days,' says Reina. 'Many Rastas were chased away. But we are determined to remain. It's impossible for a black man to really emancipate if he stays in Babylon.'
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
This band has sold over 90 million albums. It's playing a major outdoor Boise concert
'September' will come early this year for outdoor music fans in Boise. On June 17, to be exact. That's when funk/soul/disco machine Earth, Wind & Fire — creator of ubiquitous smashes such as 'September,' 'Shining Star' and 'Boogie Wonderland' — will perform at the Idaho Botanical Garden's Outlaw Field. Formed in 1969, Earth, Wind & Fire — EWF — has sold more than 90 million albums across the globe. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. Featuring dozens of musicians over the years, EWF is almost a collective as much as a band. Key personnel still in the group include bassist and founding member Verdine White, singer Philip Bailey and drummer-percussionist Ralph Johnson. Tickets will become available to the general public starting at 10 a.m. Friday for $76 at Ticketmaster. Garden members can buy them beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday for $71.
