EARTH WIND & FIRE – RAISE! LP – Nr MINT SOUL FUNK DISCO LET’S GROOVE

Earth Wind & Fire – Raise!
(Arc Records  1984  PC37548)

Gatefold Sleeve in Excellent/Very Good+ condition
– some wear to edges, some rubbing and sticker marking top right
Inner Sleeve has small splits

Vinyl in Nr MINT condition
(there are a couple of light surface marks visible on the vinyl when held up to the light but they don’t affect the sound quality)

Earth, Wind & Fire (EWF) is an American band that has spanned the musical genres of R&B, soul, funk, jazz, disco, pop, rock, Latin and African. They are one of the most successful bands of all time. Rolling Stone Magazine described them as “innovative, precise yet sensual, calculated yet galvanizing” and declared that the band “changed the sound of black pop”.

The band was founded in Chicago by Maurice White in 1971, having grown out of a previous band known as The Salty Peppers. Other members have included Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Ralph Johnson, Larry Dunn, Al McKay and Andrew Woolfolk. The band has received 20 Grammy nominations; they won six as a group and two of its members, Maurice White and Bailey, won separate individual awards. Earth, Wind & Fire have 12 American Music Awards nominations and four awards. They have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Vocal Group Hall of Fame, received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and sold over 100 million records, making them one of the world’s best-selling bands of all time. Five members of Earth, Wind & Fire were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame: Maurice White, Philip Bailey, Verdine White, Larry Dunn and Al McKay. The music industry and fans have bestowed Lifetime Achievement honors from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (Rhythm & Soul Heritage Award – 2002), NAACP (Hall of Fame – 1994) and the BET Awards (Lifetime Achievement Award – 2002).

Earth, Wind & Fire is known for the dynamic sound of their horn section, their energetic and elaborate stage shows, and the interplay between the contrasting vocals of Philip Bailey’s falsetto and Maurice White’s tenor. The kalimba (African thumb piano) is played on all of the band’s albums. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the band had many hits, including “Shining Star”, “That’s the Way of the World”, “Devotion”, “Reasons”, “Sing a Song”, “Can’t Hide Love”, “Getaway”, “Fantasy”, “Love’s Holiday”, “September”, “Boogie Wonderland”, “After the Love Has Gone”, and “Let’s Groove”. Two Earth, Wind & Fire classic songs have been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame: “That’s the Way of the World” (2004) and “Shining Star” (2007).

The band is also known as having been the first African-American act to sell out Madison Square Garden and to receive the MSG Gold Ticket Award. President Barack Obama invited Earth, Wind & Fire to perform at the White House for the first social event of the new administration.

Raise! is the eleventh studio album by Earth, Wind & Fire, produced by the band’s leader Maurice White for Kalimba Productions, and released in 1981 on CBS Records. Raise! has been certified platinum in the US by the RIAA for sales of over a million copies and gold in the UK and Canada by the British Phonographic Industry and Music Canada respectively.

Raise! was the bestselling R&B album of 1982. The album featured the #1 R&B and # 3 Pop hit “Let’s Groove”. The single “Wanna Be With You” won EWF a Grammy for Best R&B Vocal Performance By A Duo Or Group. Raise also marked the return to the band of rhythm guitarist Roland Bautista, last heard from on 1972’s Last Days and Time.

Raise! would be the final EWF album to be released on ARC. The label would be discontinued by Columbia Records the following year.

Track listing

Production

• Horns arranged by Billy Meyers (Tracks 1, 3, 7), & Jerry Hey (2, 4, 6, 8-9)
• Strings arranged by David Foster (Track 4), & Billy Meyers (1, 3, 7)
• Design & Art Direction by Mick Guzauski
• Engineers – Ken Fowler & Ron Pendragon
• Assistant Engineer – Stephen McManus
• Engineer [horns, string overdubs] – Mick Guzauski
• Engineer [vocal overdubs] – Tom Perry
• Mixed by Mick Guzauski & Tom Perry
• Illustration by Shusei Nagaoka

Performers

• Bass, production assistant – Verdine White
• Cello – Frederick Seykora, Jerome Kessler, Larry Corbett, Mary Louise Zeyen, Paula Hochhalter, Selene Burford
• Co-producer, writer, lead & backing vocals, percussion – Philip Bailey
• Concertmaster – Assa Drori, James Getzoff
• Drums, percussion – Fred White
• Guitar – Johnny Graham, Roland Bautista
• Keyboards – Billy Meyers, David Foster, Wayne Vaughn
• Piano, synthesizer, production assistant – Larry Dunn
• Saxophone – Tom Saviano
• Alto & tenor saxophones – Don Myrick
• Tenor saxophone – Andrew Woolfolk
• Synthesizer, vocoder – Michael Boddicker
• Trombone – Bill Reichenbach, Charles Loper, Dick Hyde, George Bohanon, Lew McCreary, Louis Satterfield
• Trumpet – Chuck Findley, Gary Grant, Jerry Hey, Larry G. Hall, Michael Harris, Oscar Brashear, Rahmlee Michael Davis
• Viola – Alan DeVeritch, Allan Harshman, Gareth Nuttycombe, Pamela Goldsmith, Virginia Majewski
• Violin – Anton Sen, Arkady Shindelman, Arnold Belnick, Betty LaMagna, Brian Leonard, Denyse Buffum, Endre Granat, Haim Shtrum, Henry Ferber, Irving Geller, Jerome Reisler, John Wittenbert, Mari Tsumura Botnick, Marvin Limonick, Myra Kestenbaum, Nathan Ross, Norman Leonard, Reginald Hill, Ronald Folsom, Sheldon Sanov, Thomas Buffum, William Hymanson, William Kurasch
• Additional backing vocals – Ms. Pluto
• Additional backing vocals, guitar – Beloyd Taylor
• Additional backing vocals, percussion – Ralph Johnson
• Drums, kalimba, lead & backing vocals, producer – Maurice White