Philip Bailey



As one of the founding members and lead vocalists for Earth, Wind & Fire, Philip Bailey doesn’t waste time with labels and categories. Creating hit after hit for three decades, his dynamic falsetto has slipped effortlessly among a variety of musical grooves – R&B, soul, jazz, funk and more. Apart from EWF, his solo projects have encompassed pop, gospel and contemporary jazz. 

Soul On Jazz, Bailey’s new release on Heads Up International, is just what the title suggests: a well-crafted collection of jazz compositions – classics in most instances – with a contemporary soul spin. It’s the latest chapter in Bailey’s 30-year quest to keep searching for new and innovative approaches to musical expression. 

Maybe the deeply rooted sense of diversity comes from his efforts early in life to actively seek out music rather than waiting for it to come to him. He was born and raised in Denver, Colorado – not exactly a thriving musical mecca in the late ‘50s and ‘60s when his musical consciousness was first awakening. “It was more of a pop music town than any kind of R&B culture,” says Bailey. “There wasn’t a large population of African Americans in Denver – not like Chicago, Detroit or New York.” 

For lack of a thriving club scene, Bailey’s musical passions developed amid a collection of vinyl that belonged to a friend of his mother. “That’s how I really fell in love with jazz, just going through her record collection,” he says. “She was a big jazz buff, and one of her friends happened to be a bass player.” 

Some of Bailey’s earliest heroes included jazz giants like Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Max Roach. But he also developed a taste for the Motown sound, especially the music of Stevie Wonder, who was just beginning to make his mark in the early ‘60s. 

By his teenage years, Bailey was pursuing a dual track of percussion and vocals. The bulk of his musical training – on both fronts – came from the countless club gigs that he worked throughout high school and college. On some weekends, he’d work two gigs in one night – singing from 9 pm until 1:30 or 2 in the morning in one club, then playing drums from 2:30 to 6 am in another. 

“That was really such a valuable workshop,” he says. “When I think back on it now, and I look at the musicians of today, I realize that we had a place to hone our skills, playing all those gigs in all those clubs. But now, these kids who are coming up are actually recording music and becoming famous without ever having done a concert. Consequently, there are a lot of things that they really don’t learn, or they learn them late, or they learn them the hard way.”  

By 1970, Bailey had finished two years of college and was playing the Denver club scene with an R&B/rock outfit. His career took a fateful turn when the band landed an opening slot for a new group called Earth, Wind & Fire. By 1971, he had left school, moved to Los Angeles and became one of the leaders of EWF. 

For the next two decades, the platinum-selling and Grammy-winning Earth Wind & Fire fused a high-energy mix that crossed cultural and generational boundaries like no other band before it. Spiritually charged and unfettered by artificial boundaries, the band enjoyed universal appeal throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s, with a string of successful albums and a live show that quickly assumed legendary proportions. 

Fueled by Bailey’s vastly dynamic vocal range and his emotionally charged delivery, Earth, Wind & Fire’s universal appeal continues to this day. Reflecting on a recent performance with the band, Bailey says, “You would have thought it was 1975 all over again, and we were at the peak of our career. The enthusiasm of the crowd was just electrifying. You look out across that audience, and it’s cross-cultural, cross-generational, and a sea of many different faces and people who have fallen in love with our music. Even after all this time, it’s really gratifying.” 

In the midst of Earth, Wind & Fire’s ongoing success, Bailey has maintained a parallel career track that began with his 1982 solo debut, Continuation, and the 1984 platinum followup, Chinese Wall, co-produced by Phil Collins. The album’s Bailey-Collins duet, “Easy Lover,” topped the R&B and pop charts. He also released four gospel albums between 1984 and 1991, including the Grammy-winning Triumph in 1986.  

The solo projects kept coming in the ‘90s. Philip Bailey (1994) was a collaboration with singer Brian McKnight, and members of PM Dawn and Arrested Development. Dreams, released in 1998, marked the beginning of his association with the Heads Up label. 

Through it all, variety has been Bailey’s secret to staying connected with the music. “You can go down this road where the music industry becomes a grind, and if you’re not careful after a while, you’re just kind of going through the motions,” he says. “So I’ve always tried to find things that would spark that love again. That’s the reason why I’ve had a multi-faceted type of career – including the off-the-cuff projects with Phil Collins, or the gospel thing.” 

“I’ve always looked at my career as an evolutionary process, something where I don’t put any barriers up,” he says. “I’ve always believed that there’s a higher force involved in my whole life. I’m just taking the ride, as it were. I’ve always looked at Earth, Wind & Fire as a wonderful steppingstone to whatever else I’m supposed to do in my life. Music has been such an exciting adventure for me that I never get so caught up in the accomplishments that I lose sight of where I am as an artist.” 

 

 

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Philip Bailey's voice is a four-octave wonder, and it's been defying gravity for as long as even his family can remember. Best known to millions around the world as a celebrated vocalist with the legendary supergroup Earth Wind & Fire, Philip has also enjoyed a parallel career as a successful solo artist with six pop/R&B albums (including the new jazz/R&B-flavored Dreams) and four gospel recordings to his credit.

Although Philip recalls being able to sing before he could talk, as a kid growing up in Denver, Colorado, he was convinced his future lay in the world of percussion. "One of my earliest memories is of being at a parade when I was seven years old and being mesmerized by the drums in the marching band," he says. "I remember feeling like my heart was coming out of my body! As I got older, I used to love making as much noise as possible on the tops of overturned trash cans ... so much noise that my Mom eventually bought me some drums of my own."

Bailey's fascination with music grew when he was introduced to jazz through an album collection owned by his best friend's mom. "All the other kids in the neighborhood would be outside playing, and I'd be in the house in front of the record player," he notes. "Around that time, my Mom took me out to a jazz club to hear my older cousin play saxophone. And I just couldn't get over the sound of that instrument and the whole vibe of the music."

As a teenager, Philip pursued his dream, playing drums and bass in the high school jazz band, then rushing off to rehearsals with the school choir. In college, he expanded his percussion talents to include marimba and timpani and strongly considered joining a symphony orchestra after graduation.

"But my first love was always jazz," he confides. "Miles and Coltrane, drummers like Max Roach and Art Blakey, have always been icons for me." Not surprisingly, Bailey became a regular on the bill at several local clubs, singing from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m., then playing drums from 3:30 to 6 in the morning. One night, his band supported the embryonic Earth Wind & Fire, and brief introductions were made. It was an encounter that was to prove vital to Philip's future and to the history of American pop music.

Bailey left college a year later and decided to chance his musical luck in Los Angeles. Once he arrived on the West Coast, it didn't take long to hook up again with EWF. The group's founder Maurice White, a former session drummer for such artists as Etta James, Fontella Bass and Billy Stewart, had arrived in L.A. only the year before with visions of creating a truly universal music group - one that was spiritually charged and ambitious in scope, defying boundaries of color, culture and categorization. Those ideas appealed to Philip as well, and his soon-to-be trademark falsetto blended so perfectly with White's charismatic tenor that the young singer was invited to join the band.

As EWF skyrocketed to the top of the charts, both fans and critics began championing Bailey's incomparable upper-register flights on such hits as "Shining Star," "Reasons," "All 'N All," and "After The Love Has Gone." Throughout the next decade, EWF's astronomical success (six Grammy Awards, four American Music Awards and more than 50 gold and platinum albums) provided the critically-acclaimed singer with the perfect launching pad for a solo career.

In 1982, while continuing his work with EWF, Philip recorded his first solo project, Continuation. Soon to follow were the pop/R&B albums Chinese Wall (1984), which spawned the worldwide hit duet with Phil Collins, Easy Lover and Inside Out (1986). During that time, Bailey also began making a name for himself in the gospel world and has since released four gospel recordings, including The Wonders of His Love (1984), the Grammy-winning Triumph (1986), Family Affair (1989) and The Best of Philip Bailey: A Gospel Collection (1991).

Shortly after returning to the studio with Earth Wind & Fire to record the band's Grammy-nominated Millennium, Philip collaborated with singer Brian McKnight and members of the hit groups PM Dawn and Arrested Development to co-write and record yet another pop/R&B solo project -- Philip Bailey (1994). In 1998, his album Life and Love was released throughout Europe.

Philip's most recent endeavor, Dreams (HUCD 3048), gave him an opportunity to focus on his first love -- jazz -- as he teamed with a veritable "who's who" of contemporary jazz artists, including Gerald Albright, Randy Brecker, Luis Conte, George Duke, Everette Harp, Joe McBride, Pat Metheny, Morris Pleasure (who also co-produced some tracks), Gerald Veasley, Grover Washington, Jr., Kirk Whalum and Peter White.

"It really was a dream having all these different musicians involved," notes Bailey. "I'd worked with many of them in the past. George Duke produced my very first solo album. Kirk, Grover, Joe and both Geralds have also played with me before. And, of course, Morris and I met in Earth Wind & Fire. But it's still so flattering to have all these people giving a hand and creating this album with me."

Tracks on the new ten-song disc range from such pop favorites as Van Morrison's "Moondance" and Bread's "Make It With You" to several original tunes, including three composed by co-producer Erik Huber and two penned by Philip, his son Sir Bailey, and co-producer Robert Brookins.

"When I called Pat Metheny and asked him to write something for this project, he suggested I listen first to "Something To Remind You," a song he had written a few years ago with Lyle Mays, because it had been inspired by Earth Wind & Fire," says Bailey. "I loved the song, so I asked my son Sir, who has often co-written with me, to come up with some Iyrics. It's now one of my favorites on the album."

It's an exciting year for Bailey, as he looks forward to sharing a new solo recording with his American fans for the first time in five years and as he readies for a summer U.S. tour with Earth Wind & Fire. "Having the new album and coming up on my 30th anniversary with EWF, it's just a great time in my life, and I feel very blessed. I love the fact that as musicians, we get to take a stab at leaving behind something that's pure, preserved for the future. It's a wonderful feeling to be able to do that."


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