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Gratitude-1975 Columbia Produced by Maurice White Charles Stepney-Producer Joseph Wissert-Producer Earth, Wind and Fire: Maurice
White-Drums, Timbales, Vocals, Kalimba/ Verdine White-Bass, Percussion, Vocals/ Philip Bailey-Percussion, Conga, Vocals/ Larry
Dunn-Organ, Piano, Moog Synthesizer/ John Graham-Guitar/ Ralph Johnson-Percussion, Drums/ Al McKay-Guitar, Percussion/ Fred
White-Percussion, Drums Andrew Woolfolk-Percussion, Saxophone/ Earth, Wind & Fire Horn Section: Michael Harris-Trumpet/
Don Myrick-Saxophone/ Louis Satterfield-Trombone
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Overall**** Gratitude is the result of "Columbia Records" wanting EW&F to rush-release another album and capitalize
on the successes of "That's the Way of the World" and "Open Our Eyes" both major hit albums within' 20
months of Gratitude being released. However, in many cases, the result of a rush-release is anti-climactic and even a few
times the end result is disappointment. The good news is that "Gratitude" was neither, it was a smash! Maurice White
(group founder) realized during the time they were approached about recording a new album, that their might not be enough
time to produce a full quality album and still make deadline. So he decided to take a different approach and record their
live shows from the "legendary " That's the Way of the World" tour and pick out the best perfomances to use
for the new album. During a short hiatus in the summer of 1975, the group returned to the studio to record a few new songs
to add to the album. The end result was a dynamic album that is 2/3 live music, 1/3 studio and 3/3 exceptional. From the three
loud gongs shortly before the emcee introduces "Earth, Wind and Fire" to the final fade out of heavenly falsetto
harmony in "Can't Hide Love'", Gratitude doesn't have a dull moment. On the live set, the group exhibits how proficient
they are as musicians, and how favorably the crowd reacts.
Though they only included 5 new studio songs on "Gratitude', it was rather noticeable that they were evolving. The
new material was in it's own way profound enough to initiate mind exercise, though maybe not as much as certain selections
from earlier EW&F album. Most noticeably, was the sound of EW&F was a little more polished (maintaining their strong
points), than they had ever released, and was an indication of what to expect in EW&F's next several albums.
All in all, "Gratitude" was a thank you gift from EW&F for the support they were receiving from the record-buying
and concert attending public .
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