The music world lost one of its most significant luminaries when Maurice White, founder and co-frontman of the iconic group Earth, Wind & Fire, died yesterday (February 4). “The light is he, shining on you and me”.
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Known as “Reese” among his friends, Maurice White helped shoot Earth, Wind & Fire to fame with hits such as “September”, “Boogie Wonderland”, “Shining Star”, and “After the Love has Gone”.
He died from his sleep after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s Disease which got worse in recent months since he contracted it in 1992.
Our brother Maurice White passed peacefully in his sleep this morning.
“Thank you for your prayers and well wishes”, White’s brother and bandmate Verdine wrote in a statement. The band was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000.
White founded the group, originally called the Salty Peppers, in 1969 after relocating from his native Chicago to Los Angeles.
The band – which toured as a nine-piece unit – also built a strong following for their live performances and continued to tour in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Even when Earth, Wind & Fire was topping the charts, the group kept away from controversy and remained closely bonded.
White was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in the early 1990s and stopped touring with the group in 1994. White is survived by several family members, including his brothers and bandmates Verdine and Fred.
Maurice also worked with Cher, The Emotions and jazz musician Brian Culbertson, among various others.
The band then included Phil Bailey, who was among the first lead singers of the band.
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Earth, Wind & Fire’s website left a brief but poignant tribute, with the headline “Maurice White (1941 – 2016)” and a photo of White walking towards the pyramids in Egypt carrying an umbrella. Together, the two held down the rhythm foundation of what would become a creative explosion that twisted and turned through multiple members and a rainbow of genres throughout the next three decades, until White was sidelined by his health issues in the ’90s.
