Nigel Hall & Dj Harrison - The Burning Bush: A Journey Through the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire (2024)

Nigel Hall and DJ Harrison are multi-instrumentalists known most for their respective main roles as keyboardists in Lettuce and Butcher Brown. Harrison's band backed Hall on Spiritual, a 2021 album that contained a very faithful version of Earth, Wind & Fire's "Caribou," and Hall later assisted Harrison with an update of Roy Ayers' "Coffy." Released only a few months after Harrison's all-covers Shades of Yesterday, The Burning Bush: A Journey Through the Music of Earth, Wind & Fire further explores foundational Black music with the intent of opening gateways for younger listeners. That the album was previewed first with the serene and spiritual "Earth, Wind & Fire" made it clear that the duo's project would be going far beneath the surface. While they don't reference the lesser-known first three EWF albums, Hall and Harrison – joined by members of Lettuce and Butcher Brown, along with bassist Brandon Lane and singer Sam Reed – mix it up with album cuts outnumbering radio staples.

In terms of structure, they generally stay true to the originals and place a greater emphasis on warm low end (with bass and keyboards) while bringing in glowing brass, sky-scraping harmonies, and even some speedy kalimba (thumb piano). Half of the songs originated on the consecutive 1975-1976 classics That's the Way of the World and Spirit, the last two albums the band made with arranger, producer, and composer extraordinaire Charles Stepney. Hall, the primary vocalist, impressively handles Maurice White's and Philip Bailey's overlapping leads on "That's the Way of the World," and "On Your Face" and "Imagination," beaming Spirit cuts overshadowed by "Getaway" (not covered here), are given duly joyous readings. Opener "Evil" expresses all the grief and optimism of the original – the earliest selection here – and is just as finely layered. The floating "Dreams" closes EWF's Open Our Eyes, but here, the scatting vocal with electric keyboard piece cleverly leads to the full-bodied uptempo number "Runnin,'" another showcase for Hall's cascading falsetto. Hall and Harrison wait until the end to take it to the '80s with a pair of tracks from Raise!, dazzling with a stellar "My Love" (Sam Reed performs Wanda Hutchinson-Vaughn's secondary vocal with all the necessary verve), then closing encore-style with a partially fuzzed-out "Let's Groove" that achieves full flight right on time.

Review by Andy Kellman

Tracklist
1. Evil (04:58)
2. Happy Feelin' (03:11)
3. All About Love (05:12)
4. Sun Goddess (07:07)
5. Earth, Wind & Fire (03:44)
6. Imagination (05:17)
7. That's The Way Of The World (02:35)
8. Dreams (03:33)
9. Runnin' (03:54)
10. On Your Face (04:20)
11. My Love (04:35)
12. Let's Groove (05:41)