"By 1970 Rodgers was gigging regularly in an early 'jazz-blues-rock-fusion' band called New World Rising. Between his technical command and a personal charm he’s too charming to brag about, his career progressed steadily, from 'Sesame Street' road band to Apollo house band to increasingly lucrative backup slots. In the early 1970s he hooked up with Edwards, whose slick sartorial style and deep soul roots contrasted so drastically with Rodgers’s hippie motley and avant-jazz upbringing that it took the happenstance of a shared job to convince them their partnership was meant to be. Musically, Edwards effected a 'soul-man makeover' by getting Rodgers to put down his hollow-bodied Gibson and teaching him to 'chuck' on a Stratocaster. But Chic was Rodgers’s concept—a minimalist funk band inspired image-wise by Roxy Music’s ersatz elegance and Kiss’s refusal to show their faces."
In The New York Times, Robert Christgau reviews Nile Rodgers's Le Freak: An Upside Down Story of Family, Disco, and Destiny.
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