Earth, Wind & Fire returns to Denver on Wednesday heavier in heart but lighter in spirit and determined to keep the fire burning.
This will be the enduring R&B pop jazz funk disco supergroup’s first concert appearance in Denver since the April 25 death of saxophonist Andrew Woolfolk, who last performed with the band back in 1993 but remained lifelong friends with his Denver East High School classmate, multi-octave vocalist Philip Bailey.
“It's a bittersweet thing,” Bailey told The Denver Gazette. “Andrew had been sick for six years after a debilitating stroke, and that was very painful for everyone. His family — and all of us — really dismissed him with a ‘sigh of release,’ knowing that he was going onto a better place after he had suffered so long in that state.”
“Booskie,” as he was nicknamed by founding band member Verdine White, was a champion, a strong person and ever upbeat, even in his suffering. “He had such a profound impact on so many people by the way he dealt with his adversity,” Bailey said of Woolfolk, a member of the band from 1973-93, with four years off along the way. As a musician, he was fearless, vivacious and entertaining. As a man, he was funny and witty. “He just made a great impact on everybody he met, so his legacy will truly live on through his children and those who were close to him.”
Earth, Wind & Fire, winner of seven Grammy Awards, was named after the primary elements of founding drummer Maurice White’s astrological sign (Sagittarius). It coagulated amid the social upheaval of 1969 to intentionally put life-affirming, exuberant music out into the world that promotes love, brotherhood and respect. It remains perhaps best known for the classics "Shining Star," “September,” “Boogie Wonderland,” “Let’s Groove (Tonight),” “After the Love is Gone” and a cover of The Beatles’ classic “Got to Get You into My Life” — each infused with Bailey’s signature falsetto.
“It was Maurice's vision for the band to be, as he put it, 'a service to humanity,’ ” Bailey said. “And for that reason, we chose to write things that would be uplifting and positive and help people navigate through the hard and challenging times with music that would bring people together. The vision was broad, but it has been adhered to for 50 years now.”
Bailey credits much of his success to the training he received at Denver East High School, which he considered to be the equivalent of attending a college music conservatory. “We were very fortunate to come up in a time when music in the Denver Public Schools system was very supported and very serious,” he said.
After five decades and 90 million records sold, you might think that Bailey, at age 71, has earned the right to step back. But, he asks in response: “Where would I step back to?
“This is who I am. I would do music if I wasn't paid for it because music is just the way I move and breathe. And I enjoy being on the road. Just like we crave being at home, we look forward to being on the road as well.”
Maurice White asked Bailey to join his then 3-year-old band in 1972, along with a third East High classmate, keyboardist Larry Dunn. Bailey became the on-stage band leader in 1994 when White was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Over the band’s 53 years, it has had 30 players, with only Verdine White remaining from the first lineup in 1969. The roster that included all three Denver members was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. The current tour reunites Bailey and Verdine White with 74-year-old Carlos Santana for the first time since EW&F and Santana toured Europe together in the early ’70s.
“Carlos brings it every night,” Bailey said of what is being billed as “The Miraculous Supernatural Tour” coming to Ball Arena on Wednesday night (June 29). “The shows have been fantastic, and the reception has been fantastic.”
In his 2014 memoir, “Shining Star: Braving the Elements of Earth, Wind & Fire,” Bailey admitted that he was something of an absentee father to his seven children from three marriages. But he’s now touring with his namesake, Philip Bailey Jr., singing backup vocals with the band. “It’s good,” Bailey said with a laugh. “He gets to see the reason I was never home.”
In 2007, Bailey turned his attention to helping many of the 23,000 youth who age out of the foster-care system every year. That’s when he founded Music Is Unity, a foundation that provides grants to nonprofit organizations and agencies that offer support services to young-adult foster children when they are cut off from help.
“Our foster communities are very underserved and undersupported, and that’s why so many of them find themselves in precarious situations,” said Bailey, who donates a percentage of all Earth, Wind & Fire concert ticket proceeds to the foundation. “I champion emancipated foster-care youth to help them realize their potential, which most other kids take for granted. I have seven children and seven grandchildren, and I can’t imagine any of them trying to navigate this world with no support. This is something that I am passionate about and something that I have embraced for the long haul. I am in it for as long as I’m here.”
Just like he’s in it to perform for as long as he’s here, too. And for one simple reason. “People always feel better leaving our shows than when they came,” he said.
One of those recent people was concertgoer Meg Betz Morales, who posted after a recent concert: “In an uncertain world, your joy and love and music that makes us dance is the medicine we need.”