I had intended to write something about the things we fear. But a friend posted Earth, Wind, and Fire's "September" YouTube on FB today and I went out and bought The Eternal Dance collection today. I ripped it to my computer and have been listening to it.
I was a fan of EW&F, had a few of their albums (vinyl) and even went to see them when I lived in Seattle. It was in the mid 80s, so getting towards the end of their lifespan. It was a great show, with glittering Egyptian-pan-African extravaganza staging. They were a funk band, a great one.They always were about dancing and had incredible rhythm sections.It's next to impossible to sit still listening to them.
Until I sat down tonight to listen to them, I hadn't realized that EW&F is a lot like Parliament, pushing the transcendent, transformative power of music. It's less sexual than George Clinton's various bands, though plenty sexy. It's less sweaty, less gritty, less psychedelic. But EW&F's swinging hard and like Clinton, there's this sense of a better world that we can dance ourselves into, a heaven of love and funk.
There are two things that really make EW&F for me, there's the elaborate orchestrations allied with on-the-one funk bass and rhythm and there's Phillip Bailey's voice.
I've been thinking about falsettos lately, listening to TV on the Radio and some Ashford and Simpson after Nick Ashford died recently. Bailey's voice is sweet, melodic and like counter-tenors (which is what he is, a man with a great, well-developed head voice) it's high, not feminine. Actually, most African American counter-tenors aren't particularly feminine, though Jimmy Scott's voice is working the midline in interesting ways. Bailey's voice has a lot of silken power. It seduces.
So I know where this weekend's going. Kicked back and rediscovering some great music.
[What do I mean by music of the diaspora? It's the music made by or influenced by Africans taken from the continent and spread over the western hemisphere by the Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade. Much of American popular music is diasporan. I'd argue for a lot of pop, a substantial slice of rock, all R&B, nearly all jazz, and the blues, natch.]
