{"id":96474,"date":"2022-04-27T04:21:59","date_gmt":"2022-04-26T22:51:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/andrew-woolfolk-dead-earth-wind-fire-saxophone-player-was-71\/"},"modified":"2022-04-27T04:21:59","modified_gmt":"2022-04-26T22:51:59","slug":"andrew-woolfolk-dead-earth-wind-fire-saxophone-player-was-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/andrew-woolfolk-dead-earth-wind-fire-saxophone-player-was-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Woolfolk Dead: Earth, Wind &#038; Fire Saxophone Player Was 71"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Andrew Woolfolk, a saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist for Earth, Wind &amp; Fire has died after a six-year illness, band frontman Philip Bailey confirmed in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was 71.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI met him in high school,\u201d Bailey wrote on Instagram, \u201cand we quickly became friends and band mates. Andrew Paul Woolfolk was his name. We lost him today, after being ill of over 6 years. He has transitioned on to the forever, from this land of the dying to the land of the living. Great memories. Great talent. Funny. Competitive. Quick-witted. And always styling. Booski\u2026\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019ll see you on the other side, my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned=\"\" data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/CcwT90tJPtH\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" style=\" background:#FFF; border:0; border-radius:3px; box-shadow:0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width:500px; min-width:326px; padding:0; width:99.375%; width:-webkit-calc(100% - 2px); width:calc(100% - 2px);\">\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m so sorry to hear this,\u201d responded jazz bass great Christian McBride. \u201cWhat a major part of the EWF legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Woolfolk joined the band in 1972, several years after the group\u2019s founding \u2014 he succeeded Ronnie Laws as sax player \u2014 but was recruited by by his high school friend Bailey well in time for the group\u2019s astounding run of hits in the mid-\u201970s and beyond.<\/p>\n<p>His initial run with the group ran from 1973\u2019s \u201cOpen Your Eyes\u201d album through the band going on hiatus a decade later. He returned for EWF\u2019s reunion in 1987 and stayed with the band for six more years, ultimately departing in 1993. Besides the soprano sax, he also played flute and percussion for the group.<\/p>\n<p>Among the smash albums he played on during the group\u2019s original run was the blockbuster \u201cThat\u2019s the Way of the World,\u201d plus albums including \u201cAll \u2018N All,\u201d \u201cGratitude\u201d and \u201cSpirit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>More to come\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Woolfolk, a saxophone player and multi-instrumentalist for Earth, Wind &amp; Fire has died after a six-year illness, band frontman Philip Bailey confirmed in a social media post Tuesday afternoon. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member was 71. \u201cI met him in high school,\u201d Bailey wrote on Instagram, \u201cand we quickly became friends [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":96475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,3,105,106],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Andrew-Woolfolk-Dead-Earth-Wind-Fire-Saxophone-Player-Was.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96474"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=96474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=96474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=96474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/centralrecorder.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=96474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}