Thirty years ago, when the Ramsey Lewis Trio was one of the hottest jazz acts in the country, the drummer gave Lewis the news that he was leaving. "He told me he was going to start a band with his brother that mixed magic and inspirational messages with jazz r&b and rock," Lewis said laughing at the memory. "I told him to take two aspirin, lie down and call me in the morning."
The drummer, Maurice White, went on to form Earth, Wind & Fire; one of the largest selling musical acts of the 70's, and arguably, "the" most influential black band of all time.
Three decades later, Phillip Bailey, EW&F's most recognizable voice and one of three members left from the celebrated group's heyday, the others are drummer/vocalist Ralph Johnson, and the only original member, Verdine White, has comes full circle with his very first solo jazz album entitled,” Dreams."
Bailey recorded his first solo album, "Continuation," back in 1982. He followed that with two more pop albums and the worldwide hit duet with Phil Collins "Easy Lover," plus four gospel albums including 1986's "Triumph," which earned him a Grammy award that sits with the six others, four American Music awards and 50 gold and platinum albums earned with Earth, Wind & Fire.
While EW&F has always done very jazzy tunes, Bailey didn't start getting notice singing jazz until earlier this decade when he was part of two one-shot groups that exquisitely displayed what his four-octave voice can do with the great American song. James Mack, head of the music department at that city’s Harold Washington College, assembled the first group, Pride of Lions, in Chicago in ‘92.
The group included, among others, trumpeter Roy Hargrove, the late drummer Tony Williams, pianist Billy Childs, saxophonist Bobby Watson, Chicago guitarist Fareed Haque and their self-titled album is still available on Sony. However, the other group, Night On The Town, only toured, but the group was just as formidable featuring Chicago superstar Chaka Khan, South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela, Japanese keyboardist Keiko Matsui and smooth jazz sax star Gerald Albright.
"Dreams" is decidedly more in the direction of smooth jazz than either of those specially assembled groups were, to wit, Bailey makes no apologies. The list of musicians who absolutely, positively overnighted Bailey music for his album include jazz stars Grover Washington Jr., Pat Metheny, George Duke, Peter White, Kirk Whalum and many others.
Bailey Bailey’s positive and bright on-stage demeanor is no act. He accompanied Keiko Matsui, Chaka Khan, Hugh Masekela and Gerald Albright in a jazz band called “Night On The Town”. Philip performed the “The Nearness Of You on the James Mack recording, and readily admits that Jazz was really his the very first love. In his words, “That's been the real inspiration for all the stuff that I do musically. The fact that there's those people that went before me that I still look up to”.
As a jazz singer, Miles Davis and Coltrane and Sarah Vaughan, Nancy Wilson influenced him and really people do not know what an influence Dionne Warwick was on him. Just her vibrato, just her phrasing had him into Dionne Warwick like a champ when he was a kid. But basically, he thinks of his voice as a vehicle by which the creator does whatever he wants to do and then he just tries to stay yielded in that way. And that way Philip doesn't put a limit on what can happen. Philip’s always exploring and discovering new things about his voice.
Why do a jazz album now? “Because that's the supreme expression of freedom and fluidity and flexibility. That's where it all comes together and you begin to fly. As a singer and an instrumentalist, you're not thinking about what you're doing. It's just free flow, like astral traveling.”
”Earth, Wind & Fire has performed jazz from the beginning. That's our inspiration. That's always been our inspiration, and while we've talked about it for a while now, I still look forward to the day when Earth, Wind & Fire does a jazz record. To record where you don't have to deal with commerciality at all. It can be whatever it is. “
Earth, Wind & Fire have performed jazz tunes for years, with great tunes, such as, "Zanzibar," "Power," "Sun Goddess," the Milton Nascimento Brazilian stuff.
Philip’s new record, "Head To The Sky" is jazzy, but it's interesting to compete with yourself on a couple of tracks like re-doing "Make It With You" (with Grover Washington) and “Sail Away.” “With "Sail Away," I thought we were going to do a stripped down acoustic version of it and then when Erik sent it to me, it was a hip-hop version with the chords changes changed up, with a slight twist on the melody. So I just sang it and sent it back to him. This record was put together very interestingly.”
For the recording, “I sent a tape to whomever I wanted and then they put their stuff on there and send it back. I didn't even see anybody. I haven't even seen Erik Huber. I've never met him. We did the vocals at my house, at my studio. The only person I saw was Robert Brookins.”
”On the Pat Metheny tune, "Something To Remind Me," I told him about the project and he said, 'listen to this song, because me (and Lyle Mays) were inspired to write it by you guys.' So I talked to my son (Sir Bailey) and he wrote the lyrics. My son Sir is twenty-seven. He writes. He's a really, really good lyricist. He works for a television company, for Carsey & Werner, on "Third Rock From The Sun." His aspiration is to direct and to write and produce on TV. He's got quite the mind. So he can just take the stuff and just hook me up. “
Philip states, ”The thing about it is you've got to know your limitation. And I know, kind of what I want to say, but then, it's important to say stuff the way it should be said for today. I think people get in trouble when they don't acknowledge it's a different day and find out what their contribution should be now, for today. They get too stuck in yesterday. So while they're not trying to move on, they actually get left behind.”
“You really don't think about it, because you're in motion. So you're not really thinking about it. Plus your whole aim when you first start out is to build a career. You're looking at Miles Davis. You're looking at the fact that when you go into a record store, you've got three rows of records, of music history. You're looking at that and you're going, 'I'm not there yet.' You're just marching. And then you look back 20 years and you go, 'wow, I'm still marching.' So the journey's not over until it's over. And you let other people credit you for whatever you leave behind. But you've got to stay in motion, that's my philosophy.”
Why not just opt for a solo career? Why keep the band and the solo career all this time? Now you've been doing the solo thing for getting close to 20 years. Why keep in motion with both of them?
”I want to have something to bring back to Earth, Wind & Fire, and I want to have a reason to have a solo career. It all makes sense. With Earth, Wind & Fire, before Maurice (White) left, I'm a role player. I knew what my responsibilities were and all of that, but it didn't encapsulate all the potential in everything I could do. So I had to have a solo career to have an outlet to continue to grow. But then as I grow and come back to Earth, Wind & Fire, I'm more of an asset. So, one hand washes the other.”
The originals in the band are myself, Ralph (Johnson) and Verdine White. Sonny Emory is doing his solo stuff. Gordon Campbell is playing now. Robert Brookins is a really good producer, songwriter. He plays with us now and he was totally the man on my record. He produced all the vocals for me and the new show that we're doing now; he's largely responsible for.
”Erik Huber produced "Dreams" for my album and I've never seen him. Why pick him to trust with something so valuable? The music speaks for itself. You send me some stuff and it's happening, it's happening.”
No doubt, you didn't even think about the fact that you could lose some audience by doing a jazzier record?
”Heck no, I don't think about that. That never would enter into my mind. I'm honest and true about what I do and why I'm doing it. You can't go through life second-guessing yourself thinking about what if somebody doesn't like stuff. You'll never arrive at your destiny that way.”Year 2000 will be the 30th anniversary of the release of the very first Earth, Wind & Fire album. Philip Bailey wasn’t with the band yet, even before "Last Days & Times," the band third record, but his first, and yet he had known the band before.
“Actually, we used to perform Earth, Wind & Fire songs in my band. We did "I Think About Loving You," and “ Moment of Truth”.
So how did you meet?
”Well their band did a promotional show in Colorado and our band opened the show and that's how we met. Obviously, we didn't play their songs when we saw them. But, we caught their attention (me and keyboardist) Larry Dunn; we were in the other band. That's how it happened. That next year, a mutual friend of both bands moved out to Los Angeles to work for Warner Brothers, (the record company Earth, Wind & Fire was originally signed to.) And he brought me out there and then when they started to reform, that's how I got into the band.”
Did you ever feel like it was fate, after you had been in the band for a while?
”Oh definitely, there were no accidents. It was just totally the way God wanted to do something.”"The Wonders Of His Love," although it's a gospel album, you and George Duke are just kicking throughout that album. How is your gospel career going? Are you going to continue that?
”I've gotta find a writer/producer to help me out, the right person. I'm definitely am going to do it.”
Mark Ruffin for JazzUSA conducted the original scripted interview with Philip Bailey.