“DO YOU REMEMBER?…. SEPTEMBER!”
You probably hear that song that Pablo Motos dances at the beginning of the “El Hormiguero” tv show, “Do You Remember? …. September!” They are the mythical Earth Wind & Fire with their song ‘September’ with which almost half a century later they continue to make everyone dance. Just a year ago, Al Mckay´s Earth Wind and Fire Experience raised a crowded María Guerrero Theater to dance its funkiest songs.
Do you want to know what you missed?
The main dish of the Second Edition of the Smooth Hot Jazz Festival took place in early April 2019, just a year ago, when 14 musicians with a vast musical career flooded Madrid with the most danceable rhythms.
Who are Al Mckay´s Allstars?
Also known as Al McKay´s Earth Wind and Fire Experience, they are built around the legendary Earth Wind & Fire guitarist, Al McKay, with a selection of the best musicians from Los Angeles and the wind section led by Michael Harris, the trumpeter originally from EWF and member of Phoenix Horn.
In late 1983, Earth, Wind & Fire had a long hiatus, with occasional performances, until in 1990, former EWF guitarist Al McKay decided to put together a band with the remnants of the original group, initially for some special performances in Japan.
Over almost 40 years the most popular musicians have passed through this superband influential R&B and Funk, building on this pool of great artists, Al McKay’s Earth Wind & Fire Experience has demonstrated the highest respect and commitment to preserving the excellence of the sound of the original band.
What did we see in Madrid?
We were able to see various genres of music, a fusion of disco, R&B, funk with jazz, soul, gospel, pop, blues, psychedelia, folk, African music and rock and roll.
And it is that during their career they have been 20 times candidates for the Grammy, winning 6 awards. And they have their own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. With guitarist Al McKay as leader, producer and guitarist of the EWF between 1973 and 1981, they have recovered the greatest hits such as “September”, “Let’s groove” or “Boogie Wonderland”, touring the most important stages in the world.
Do you want to know what we could hear at the second edition of the Smooth Hot Jazz Festival?
The opening came with the theme ‘Serpentine Fire’. A classic from the band that first appeared edited in 1977 and composed by Maurice White, Verdine White and Reginald Sonny Burke. It reached # 1 on Billboard Hot Soul Songs.
The second track ‘Pride‘ from the tenth EW&F album was followed by a great version of the Beatles song ‘Got To Get You Into My Life’ a song that, by the way, although it has the format of a love song, McCartney revealed that the song was an ode to the act of smoking marijuana.
The fourth song ‘Can’t Let Go’ a 1979 single that mixes R&B with Funk and reached number one in England and Germany. The fifth song we also heard co-written by Al Mckay was the popular ‘Saturday Nite’, a well-known song from the 1976 album Spirit, considered a“ gem ”by the popular international magazine Blues and Soul. A song that, incidentally, was used as a sampler by the Spice Girls for their single ‘Say You´ll be Theree’
The sixth song they played was ‘Shining Star’. Edited in 1975, it appeared on the soundtrack for the 2016 film Doctor Strange. It also reached # 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Followed by another of his huge hits ‘After The Love Has Gone“. Another hit by the band made up of David Foster, Jay Graydon and Bill Champlin. He managed to reach # 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
With the rhythm already underway they slowed down with the tremendous ballad ‘Reasons’ one of the songs they have repeated the most in their career years, which has also been covered by Smooth Jazz artists and even rappers. Then they returned to seize the funk spirit from the hand of another of their number one, the theme ‘In The Stone’, which appears on the soundtrack of the movie Drumline (2002).
They then continued to pick up the pace with a song he received a Grammy Award nomination for Best R&B song, his popular ‘Fantasy’, and to further increase the intensity they were introduced to the toughest Funk with their song ‘Jupiter’..
Giving rest to their tremendous vocalists, they began to interpret one of their best-selling songs (with more than 1 million sales) from their album Spirit, the famous ‘Getaway’, which peaked at No. 12 on the Billboards and recovered in 2005, remixed, for the soundtrack of the video game Gran Turismo 4.
With an incredible atmosphere and the public dedicated to the arts of Al Mckay’s Allstars they launched to perform without stopping ‘Magic Mind’, ‘Let Your Feelings Show’, ‘Can’t Hide Love’ and a wonderful ‘That’s The Way Of The World’.
To culminate with the theme that is danced today in the Spanish PrimeTime television, but that several generations have been dancing non-stop, the well-known ‘September’ which was a single in 1978, written and composed by Maurice White, Al McKay, Allee Willis . Which has also appeared in the films The Nice Guys (2016), in Intocable (2011), in Night at the Museum (2006) and in Trolls (2016) and Gru, My Favorite Villain (2010)
With all the audience raised dancing their songs, Al Mckay’s Earth Wind & Fire Experience decided to end with a tremendous encore with ‘Lets Groove’ that kept the audience for 10 long minutes applauding these international music stars.
