The Creative Component Behind One World, One God (Part 3) - Ken Reynolds
As young people growing up, we often dream of meeting our heroes someday. It may be a famous sports figure, musician, singer, actor, or author. We usually never think it will become a reality. When we get older, many of those desires go away. As a musician, I realized that my musical influences were greatly expanded in high school. Growing up as a kid, I mostly listened to Gospel music. My father was a choir director for over 20 years. I was basically a PK (preacher's kid) without the title. But once I hit high school, I was listening to classical, movie soundtracks, drum & bugle corps (marching band music) and a lot of Earth, Wind, & Fire; as well as anything written and produced by Maurice White, the writer and founder of Earth, Wind, & Fire. Those musical influences as well as a little jazz took me all the way through college.
Once I started writing, all of those influences became apparent-especially the Earth, Wind, & Fire vibe. What captured me when listening to their music were the rhythm, horn arrangements, and keyboard and song structure. Their songs were more like movements as many symphony's are arranged, and the horns were always way up in the mix. I loved that, given my marching band background. Since I own almost every EWF record dating back to 1970, I can just about write the group's biography myself. They've sold millions of records and are still touring today. Maurice White has written and just about every song they've recorded. ‘September (‘Ba, de, ya...say do you remember...ba, de, ya, dancing in September...etc'), ‘After The Love Has Gone', ‘Boogie Wonderland', and the most famous, ‘Shining Star'...just to name a few.
The past few years, I've been saying..."It would be nice to meet Maurice White some day, shake his hand and say, ‘Thanks for the years of EWF music and inspiration". Little did I know, through some divine circumstances, he would get his hands on my ‘Great Things' CD & DVD. Through a mutual acquaintance, I sent a letter thanking him for the music and to let him know I was praying for him. Then I started saying to myself, "Wouldn't it be crazy if he called my cell phone one day?" Well, one Saturday afternoon my cell phone rang, and low and behold, it was Maurice White! It took me a little while to believe it was really him and not a close friend pulling a prank. But the crazy thing is he didn't just want to hook up, he wanted us to write together. What???!! The funny thing is, I never imagined that this could happen. I just wanted to meet, shake his hand and thank him for the music. So we met, and I asked him all the questions I ever wanted to ask. He asked me questions as well. He loved my music and definitely heard his influence in it. It intrigued him that I would take the EWF vibe and do Praise & Worship with it. We both had similar backgrounds growing up. He was a drummer in marching band, as was I. His music has always had a universal appeal, as mine is now having. Maurice isn't touring with the band anymore. He's just writing and producing. He got his start back in the 60's playing drums for Ramsey Lewis, the critically acclaimed jazz pianist. He just recently executive produced Brian Culbertson's record, who is also a young well-known jazz pianist. We set up a time to get together and write.
We ended up getting together with Sheldon Reynolds. He was the guitar player for EWF in the later years. So the three of us spent about four days together creating and hangin' out. I actually had one musical idea that they loved, and we worked on further developing that. I came up with another idea in my hotel room. They were diggin' that also, so Sheldon and I laid down some tracks. Maurice White is a melody and lyric master. He's quite laid back and very quiet spoken. Knowing he was the main lead singer for all of those hit songs, orchestrated some of the most elaborate arena tours, and has traveled to just about every country you could imagine, he's very reserved. And he's definitely a listener. But, he is the kind of guy that always has something going on. So we talked about some potential project plans that I can't disclose now...but stay tuned. The songs we wrote are on their way to being finished.
What I'm realizing is that God will put you in places and situations that you think is for one reason, but He's got an entirely different plan and agenda. We have to be responsible and ready for whatever he puts in our path. We've all heard the expression, ‘Be careful what you pray for, you just might get it'. Well, what are you going to do if God grants it? I'm not sure where this relationship will lead, but I know God has a plan and I'm not just extremely grateful, but also ready to continue walking in God's will-whatever that ends up being. As cool as it may be to enjoy these experiences, I realize there's a higher calling and I'm just a vessel. God gave me these musical gifts. So, ‘To God Be The Glory', for the things He has done, is doing, and is going to do!
Ken Reynolds
P.S. Stay tuned...I just might have to get out my platform shoes!
kenreynolds.com
