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Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
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Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
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Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Stevie Wonder
It is hard to describe the career of Stevie Wonder without relying heavily on superlatives. After Elvis and the Beatles, Wonder has racked up more Top 10 singles than anybody has (twenty-seven and counting). He?s been the most continually successful of all the Motown-related artists while remaining one of the most artistically idiosyncratic. He has also maintained a level of consistency in the quality of his output that is unequaled by any contemporary artist with his longevity.
Born a month early on May 13, 1950, the baby Steveland Morris was placed in an incubator and subjected to an excessive amount of oxygen, which has been explained as the cause of his blindness. Although one of his senses was compromised, Stevie showed a natural facility with music, and he hoped it would provide him with an avocation. In his preteen years, he was brimming with talent that was obvious to anyone who ever heard him sing on a neighborhood doorstep. A friend of his was the brother of Ronnie White, a member of Smokey Robinson?s Miracles, and he constantly harassed his brother to come and check Stevie out. Tired of the pestering, White and Pete Moore (also a Miracle) became the first members of the Motown Record Corporation to hear Steveland Morris, and they were impressed enough to introduce him to the label?s ?talent scout,? Brian Holland. Not expecting much, Holland didn?t even bring him into the building and instead asked him to audition on the front stoop of the studio, not realizing that this was the younger singer?s most natural environment. Berry Gordy was next to be notified of the blind boy?s talent, and promptly made him the youngest member of the Motown family.
Just like a musically inclined kid in a recording studio, he could hardly believe his luck at having access to so many instruments, and he jumped at his chance to play whatever he could get his hands on. Motown recorded numerous tracks with him, but he was such a unique artist that, because of his age and his specialized sound, Wonder resisted being molded into the standard Motown routine. For almost two years, Motown and ?Little Stevie Wonder,? as Gordy dubbed him, searched for an appropriate single to break him onto the pop charts. The first few they attempted performed miserably on the charts and were ignored by radio. Wonder?s saving grace at this time was his live performances. Gordy booked him a spot on the ?Motown Revue,? a traveling tour of the various Motown acts featuring a very controlled set of performances by the label?s numerous acts. Since his spot on the live show was usually loose and instinctive, Little Stevie stood out. He would inspire the audience with his improvisational playing and singing until they erupted into frenzy. Among all the acts to appear on the bill, the response to Wonder was the most overwhelmingly supportive, so Gordy decided to try something new and recorded him onstage. ?Fingertips? was a seven-minute-long highlight of his show that was broken in half and released as a single in two parts. ?Fingertips, Part II? featured little more than a series of improvised encores and confusion while the band changed personnel for the next act and followed Wonder?s lead as best as they could. It was a mess, but it was an exciting mess, and it went to #1, suddenly establishing Little Stevie Wonder as a premier artist on the Motown label. He was thirteen years old.
A dip in the pitch of his voice the following year led Motown to drop the ?Little? prefix from his name. Unfortunately, the tremendous success of his live recording and his predictably steady maturation both conspired to destroy his career. His subsequent studio efforts weren?t nearly as appealing as ?Fingertips,? and his deepening voice meant that a complete change of direction was in order, as well as a change in the key of his backing tracks, if he was to remain active at Motown.
Songwriting was the key that salvaged Wonder?s career. While on tour, he would often keep everybody on the bus awake while he worked out musical ideas that he had in his head, making it obvious that he had an innate talent for creating his own music. Although Motown generally frowned on artists writing their own material, Gordy recognized that Wonder was something of an anomaly and let him write with house producer/writer Henry Cosby and lyricist Sylvia Moy. ?Uptight (Everything?s Alright)? was the fruit of their labor, and it became the most identifiable song of Wonder?s career. With a joyous message and some cockeyed lyrical phrasing (a trademark of much of Wonder?s work), ?Uptight? was as infectious and life-affirming as a song could be when sung by someone who?s ?Got empty pockets. See, I?m a poor man?s son.? A searing horn riff sets up the song?s positive vibe until Wonder?s voice takes over. From then on, the song brims with unharnessed exultation. With a new voice and a more focused musical style, Wonder was back on the pop charts in a big way. ?Uptight? climbed to #3 and provided the foundation for the next thirty years of his career.
 
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