Consumer Guide Album

Earth, Wind & Fire: Gratitude [Columbia, 1975]
The three live sides reflect their genuine jazz orientation, flowing along enjoyably and unexcessively and offering more new material than is superstar practice. But orientation ain't chops, and despite my prejudices I'd rather hear Dvorak's New World Symphony than the Whites'. The four songs on the studio side are enjoyable, too--took them a while to figure out their formula, but now they've really got it down. The news that "the good Lord gonna make a way," however, is gonna come as a surprise to Him, Her, or It. B