Geoff Brown

Back Story BORN: May 13, 1950. Saginaw, Michigan, USA. GENRES: soul, pop, R&B, funk YEARS ACTIVE: from 1961 Like the music of The Beatles and Bob Dylan, the sounds of Stevland Hardaway Morris are part of pop and rock’s DNA. Perhaps his influence is even more far-reaching than theirs, having certainly also informed the songwriting, arrangement and singing of ’80s and ’90s soul and R&B, and the grooves of hip hop.

The BBC Proms celebrate “50 Years Of Soul Music” tonight (Friday, September 1) at 10.15pm when the Jools Holland Orchestra hosts an array of Stax Records stars – Booker T. Jones and Steve Cropper of the brilliant house band Booker T. And The M.G.’s, singers William Bell, Eddie Floyd and Sam Moore of Sam And Dave (pictured, above, between Davids Porter and Prater, in Memphis, 1967) – in belated commemoration of the Memphis label’s celebrated Stax/Volt European tour in April/May 1967.

Maurice White, [PICTURED ABOVE, CENTRE], founder of and driving force behind Earth, Wind & Fire, one of the most musicianly yet commercial bands of the ’70s and ’80s in any genre, died on February 3 after a long fight against disease. He leaves behind a distinctive trademark sound – sharp horn arrangements, crisp, snappy rhythm sections, uplifting melodies – that even the nascent Chic imitated. Music was in Maurice White’s blood.