Larry Dunn’s Anthology of Earth, Wind & Fire at the Music Box July 21, 2019

Transcription of Podcast:

Good afternoon everybody. I am so honored to have my dear friends Larry and Luisa Dunn on the phone, and they are going to be performing July 21st at the Music Box in San Diego of course doing Larry’s Anthology of Earth, Wind and Fire. And of course Larry Dunn is a seven-time Grammy Award-winning artist. He has a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award and has been inducted into the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame, as well as the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (Denver, CO). And these are just a few of his many accolades throughout his career.

Interview by Sheryl Aronson

Responses by Larry Dunn and Luisa Dunn

Sheryl Aronson: Good afternoon Larry and Luisa. How are you doing?

Luisa & Larry Dunn: Thank you very much.

Sheryl: Well, we are so excited. San Diego is going to get to see your show. Tell everybody about the Anthology of Earth Wind and Fire so they know what they’re going to see.

Larry: Well, first of all, we’re excited because we get to see San Diego. I think the last time Luisa and I were down there was probably 25 years ago, believe it or not. I’m sure a lot has change but everybody says that of course it’s still gorgeous and beautiful. And the people are wonderful in that area. So, we’re really looking forward to it. And you know for last few years that we’ve been doing Larry Dunn’s Anthology of Earth, Wind & Fire and Earth, Wind & Fire’s music, we’ve got a wonderful orchestra/band and some great singers; and if it’s going to be fun. We do some songs that maybe they haven’t heard in a while. Of course we do the hits. And it’s awesome. We’ve got some of the top musicians and singers and stuff . . . and it’s going to be fun!

Sheryl: I’ve seen Larry’s show quite a few times every one. And every time, it’s like seeing it brand new. What I love about it is that you do hear that authentic sound of Earth, Wind and Fire from the 70s of what I remember of Earth, Wind and Fire. Larry tells some very interesting stories, because you have a lot of stories, Larry. You’ve known and written songs with Maurice white. You were part of their band as they were growing up.

Larry: I actually joined the Fire at 17-years-old. Did you actually know my birthday is June? So I believe I had just turned 18. But I actually met Maurice when I was 15 I think. And about a year later they broke up, and the band that Philip Bailey and I were in, we broke up. And after we performed, we open up the show for Maurice. The other guys from the first Earth, Wind & Fire from Chicago. And Maurice and Verdine actually came down after we had a show opening for them in the afternoon at the Hilton Hotel in Denver, Colorado. And for some reason they came down to this little club in club that we were playing at that evening for Dean and Maurice, and nobody in our group was even old enough to be in a 21 and over [club]. It’s funny, cause some of the guys painted on a mustache.

For me it was like why even go through that. They know! The club owner didn’t care, because our band was so good. We were packing it out. So I guess they just took the chance for the police coming in and whatever. And then about a year and a half after that, the guys had quit and Maurice had to regroup and went through tons of. Phil came back to Denver and I was opening the show for the group War in high school in the afternoon. These afternoon gigs are good. I was playing B3 organ and Philip called Maurice, saying, “I think we might have a guy. He’s a really good guy. He can really play. He doesn’t have a lot of experience.” I said, “Don’t. Ever say that!” Well, I was playing nightclubs since I was 11, and by the time I was 15, my little Italian mommy let me play seven nights a week. And so that’s really where the craft was honed, so when Maurice met me, it was like, “yeah.” And the rest as they say was history. We started writing together almost immediately.

Sheryl: Earth, Wind and Fire has such a wonderful history and so well known in the music industry. Tell us a little bit about that time. What was it like writing with Maurice White. How did you inspire each other?

Larry: Well, it was great because you know Maurice originally was a session drummer over at Chess Records in Chicago. Where Charles Stepney was there, the great Charles Stepney, who also produced and wrote some of the major hits, producing with Maurice and the Rotary Connection with Minnie Riperton; he was in that group. He was also in the Ramsey Lewis Trio. So him being a drummer and me being a keyboard player was a great match. His sense of rhythm was so great. And then also you know he was raised in Memphis in the church. So he also grew up layering wonderful gospel singers and the great RB singers. And I was playing jazz at a young age, and the group that Phillip and I were in and Andrew we played everything from the Beatles to Jimi Smith to the Temptations, the Supremes, every type of music . . . the Rolling Stones.

So you know, back in the day to be in the band, there was one prerequisite. You had to play your instrument. They didn’t care if you were cute or ugly, tall or short, fat or skinny, White or Black, Asian, Hispanic, it didn’t matter, you had to play! like I said, it was just a perfect match when we started writing together.

Sheryl: Your knowledge on the keyboards and the synthesizer, that’s such a unique sound that was developed during that whole rock & roll period where a lot of experimental music was being done.

Absolutely. I got turned on to Bill really by Charles Stepney because he was one of the first people to really used that in a musical way, because before that, it was used in a lot of sci-fi. He was one of the first people to really present it on a really gorgeous musical level.

He had used it on an LP produced for Ramsey Lewis called Mother Nature’s Son. And so I got a hold of it, and back then I weighed about 150 [lbs.] soaking wet. But with the anvil case, probably weighed a good 60 pounds at least. I didn’t care, because I was used to lifting B3 organs anyway. So I was what they call thin but wiry. I would lug that thing to my hotel room every night after the gig. That particular instrument didn’t have all the effects like all the keyboards of today. But it didn’t matter. I would just put on the headphones and experiment with it every night after the gig; and it kind of became my voice.

People have told me, “You’ve got a great voice. You can probably sing well. I was like, “no.” I know how to yell at singers and tell them what I want them to sing. But I worked, with some of the greatest vocalists, so that’s been a wonderful thing. That’s kind of like my voice that’s how I sang. On our solo project, the second one, N2 The Journey.

I got some of the greatest musicians and of course Luisa produced two or three with me, and she’s featured on a couple of songs and she also wrote some of the stuff. I did a cover of “Reasons,” well, you know. You have it.

Sheryl: I know. You have an amazing, Oh… Just all of the musicality of that song is incredible. And you played that during your show with the great Howard Johnson singing it.

Larry: We do the vocal version but off of the N2 The Journey CD, I did Philip Bailey’s lead over with the mini Moog and came up, and back and forth with Andre Delano on alto sax. That’s just awesome that. He does that rich solo in the middle of the song and he puts his own spin on it. Then we have these four young kids from Chattanooga, Tennessee that did the backgrounds, along with our buddy Carl Caldwell from Denver. And Stevie Wonder actually called Luisa and I and let us know how much loved it. He was having all of his deejays on KJLH playing it all day. And so much so that one of our friends that works with him at the station said, “Stevie wants to come in and see what you guys (uncle Larry) are doing.” And he actually surprised me… everybody… I mean everyone. I knew that he might come. You never know what to think with Stevie, but he actually showed up. It was Luisa’s birthday, July 31^st at the waterfront, and he showed up and came on stage and held her hand and sang his version of “Happy Birthday.” My band knew every note, and then he dedicated “Overjoyed” to us and everybody was crying, me included, and we (Luisa and I) danced… and he stayed on the stage almost an hour. We did “Shining star.” We feature Brian Culbertson on trombone.

You know all of this is online if you type “elements of fire / Larry Dunn and Stevie Wonder,” you’ll see some of the videos. After Stevie did “Overjoyed,” he said, “I want to do “Shining Star.” I said, “Stevie, we already did feature on Brian Culbertson. You know what he said? “I don’t care.” He said, “I don’t even know the lyrics either.” I said, “Hit it!”

Sheryl: When Stevie Wonder says that, you just do it!

Larry: Hey, what are you going to do? When did you when you said that you just do it. And then he blew everybody’s mind—mostly mine, because my engineer [Chris Brunt] of a 100 years since my first production, Caldera. Brunt said, “You see, you never know who’s listening to you.” After we did “Shining Star.” He tells the crowd…

“You know what? When I first heard “Shining Star…” And I kind of knew the history about Maurice White. [Stevie continues] and I hooked up with this young kid, Larry Dunn, and blah blah blah.” And he said, “I’ll never forget the first time I heard ‘Shining Star’ on the radio. I went right home, got in my studio, and I wrote this! “Dum dum dum dum dada da du dum…”

Oh my God! So he wrote “I wish.” So, that song was inspired by “Shining Star.” So like my engineer said, “See. You never know who’s listening to you!”

Sheryl: Let me just say something about your show, because what’s so fabulous. They have at least five singers, and all the harmonies that you produce… Really have that beautiful layered sound of what we’re used to with Earth, Wind and Fire. So talk about your singers as well. They’re really excellent.

Larry: Every person, they say has a little crush on Luisa. She’s the only female [and sings in LDO]. So she and I, we have to have our own dressing room. And then we’ve got Procton Bonnell III. He’s worked with a lot of great people. We’ve got Masta Edwards. All these guys go out and do their own gigs because they can’t rely on us because they’ve starved to death relying on us. There are only about two gigs a year right now. Then we’ve got the wonderful Leslie Smith, who’s worked with everybody from Sergio Mendes to Phil Collins, oh my God, on and on and on and on. We just acquired a couple of years ago, and were blessed with Howard Johnson of “So Fine You’re Mine”… baby, baby, baby fame. And we just get up at the house and they get in the studio and I turn everything on and I cook for them and they practice. And there you have it. And then you know just the consummate professionals—the people that have been doing it a long time. You know these are all people like ourselves. I was 11 years old. I just realized that you get paid to do music.

Sheryl: LOL, He’s 11 years old and is going and playing in the clubs everybody. That’s Larry Dunn. But Larry, you just have had amazing success you know. And it is always such a pleasure to hear your band play. Are there any other stories that come to mind with the Earth, Wind and Fire days that you might let everybody know about?

Larry: Hey, they have to come. They’ve got to come to hear that story.

Sheryl: Because you talk during the show right?

Larry: Well the thing is I’ve been told I talk too much. Some people tell me, “I love those stories. But other people are like, “Okay, we just we want to dance.” I’m trying to walk that thin line. But I’ve shared some really interesting story and some funny stuff. Like I said, most of us were teenagers. I was the youngest one better… and pressure. We were just young guys as just grew up together, bringing light and playing some great music. You know we were kids playing like grown men.

Sheryl: Definitely. Well let’s do a shout out to the Music Box, Larry and Luisa, and invite all of San Diego to come here Larry Dunn’s Anthology of Earth Wind and Fire. You will hear some of your favorite tunes and you will be dancing! So go ahead and do a shout out.

Luisa: Hello to all the people in San Diego and we would love to welcome you to the Music Box. Come join us. Come have a good time. Drink, dance, eat. Do what you love to do, especially on a night out. Enjoy each other’s company with your friends or you’re your spouse or your boyfriend, your girlfriend. Come down and join us and have a blast. You will love the music. You will love the entertainment. We’re gonna party really hard.

Larry: How about… eat drink and listen to Larry. Lol!

Sheryl: And hear all those wonderful songs of Earth, Wind and Fire that we love and maybe some others and sometimes there’s some really special guest appearances. But you know some you never know who’s going to appear. That is July 21st at the Music Box in San Diego. And you can get your tickets just by going online and looking up their calendar. Hey both Larry and Luisa, much love. Looking forward to seeing you on the 21^st.

Much love to our dear girlfriend Sheryl Aronson. She’s out there always hitting the streets begging and happening. Here, I’ll do the [pitch]. “That’s right, come out to the Music Box. That’s going to be July 21^st. It’s going to be Larry Dunn’s Anthology of Earth, wind & Fire. That’s July 21^st in San Diego. Come on down

Sheryl: There you go. Come on down, you heard it from the man himself. Thank you.

Larry & Luisa: Alright sweetie, we love you much. God Bless you all!

INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHOW:
Ticket Link: https://musicboxsd.frontgatetickets.com/event/2icyw4jmgockjann?_ga=2.130105482.460723135.1563242866-551646722.1563242866&fbclid=IwAR2md1VMywhZG_4vi86oIM0W6HAt4uf1h0khKjEQ1pTIpgWbSKtNpH1WRsk

Ticket Price: $30 advanced GA seat / $35 day of show GA seat / Indigo Grill dinner for 2 + show package $
PARKING: Street parking and paid lot parking available.
TABLE RESERVATION / VIP: vip@musicboxsd.com / (619) 836-1847
Music Box: Twitter + Instagram: @musicboxsd | facebook.com/MusicBoxSD | MusicBoxSD.com | The Music Box (619) 795-1337.
BOX OFFICE HOURS Monday – Friday 11:00am – 4:00pm

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