As Chaka Khan put it, “Oh, my god! That man!” Rest assured, the man in question, Charles Stepney, was well worth that exclamation. During his all too brief career, Stepney’s work as producer, arranger, songwriter, and musician made fans out of Stevie Wonder and Burt Bacharach. It prompted a young Elton John—who dreamed of making him “my arranger of choice, without question”—to snap up any album bearing his name. When Stepney stepped onto the Chicago scene in the late ’60s, he exploded the very notion of Black music, creating a funky, psychedelic symphony that reimagined pop music’s possibilities. His groundbreaking work with Earth, Wind & Fire, Rotary Connection and Minnie Riperton, Terry Callier, Marlena Shaw, and more was bold and beautiful, soulful and sophisticated. And its influence has lived on in upwards of 600 samples, his sound continuing to shape the work of artists from Tyler, The Creator to Floating Points.