Earth, Wind & Fire's Maurice White was a shining star of R&B

Elysa Gardner, @elysagardner, USA TODAY
For any fan of R&B music — any fan of music, period, really — it is impossible to think of the 1970s and early '80s without recalling the shiny, groovy, exuberant sounds of Earth, Wind & Fire. And no man played a greater role in carving out that band's gems than founding member Maurice White, who died Thursday at 74.

Shining Star, That's The Way of the World,  September,  Sing A Song,Fantasy,  Reasons: White helped write all of these hits. The onetime sessions drummer, who played with Ramsey Lewis's jazz trio in the '60s, also served as principal producer of EWF's music — steeped in jazz and funk as well as Latin influences, but as luxuriantly pop-savvy as any AM radio classics of the time. His guidance let the band segue seamlessly into the disco era, and eventually embrace electronic textures.