With the passing of Maurice White, the founder, producer, songwriter, singer and founder of Earth, Wind & Fire, fans and music critics have begun examining his rich body of work. Marshall Blonstein's, Audio Fidelity is honored to announce the release of HEAD TO THE SKY, a formative recording and highly regarded gem from the Earth, Wind & Fire catalog. The recording will be available on 4.0 Quad Hybrid SACD. Maurice was the heart and soul of the band and his contributions are on display in every track of this coveted recording.
This highly spiritual collection is a mixture of African rhythms, gospel-inflections, fusion, rock, tribal funk, improvisational jazz, and Latin rhythms. It is the 4th studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire. Earthy, ethereal, and funky are just a few terms that describe this 1973 release.
Head To The Sky is the first album where vocals took the lead over musical arrangements. This is not an album with blistering or muscular horn arrangements. Instead, the emphasis lies elsewhere. The vocals are breathy and soothing without being too ethereal; altogether, they sound like a cosmic choir. This early in the game they were already composing angelic ballads like “World's A Masquerade,” displaying their infallible skill for harmony arrangements. The opening track, “Evil” is a mysterious piece, incorporating funk guitars, Latin rhythms and ghostly back-up vocals. The track became the bands' biggest hit up to that point. Other material ranged from the hauntingly pretty title song to the jazz fusion gem “Zanzibar,” one of the great extended jazz-rock numbers of the early seventies.
As phenomenally popular as Earth, Wind & Fire was from the mid-'70s to the early '80s, it's easy to forget that the band was hardly an overnight success. When EWF took off commercially in 1974 and 1975, many new converts went back and rediscovered the excellence of Head To The Sky.
Their message here is basically spiritual, yet the unique sound of this album confirms Earth, Wind & Fire, a band for the ages and Maurice White, a musical gift and legend.
Head To The Sky
TRACKS:
1 Evil
2 Keep Your Head To The Sky
3 Build Your Nest
4 The World’s A Masquerade
5 Clover
6 Zanzibar
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