In seeking inspiration and solace after Tuesday elections, I found myself seeking refuge with an old friend. Perhaps to some he is a relic of another time, but for a while he was probably the favorite pop star to many a Jazz musician.
Stevland Morris, aka Stevie Wonder. Born May 13th, 1950.
I think it’s fitting to bring Stevie Wonder into my general weekly blogging about jazz. Stevie is probably one of the few handful of artists who have truly shaped popular music in the 20th and 21st century. He also is an artist who clearly drew on Jazz influences and helped disseminate them into the greater popular culture framework. And when I was 16 in the early 1980s and went to Jazz summer clinics at places like Manhattan School of Music, more than a few Jazz musicians implied that they wanted “to be Stevie Wonder when (they) grew up.” One actually said that phrase.
But FIRST….a message from Stevie Wonder to Congress….
That’s my personal “get fired up on election day” song. I apologize for being more of an academic and artist than activist, but I am an Anthropology and Sociology adjunct professor in Newark NJ. It’s not as if I don’t discuss and explain complex socio-political and cultural issues to young people on a regular basis. We all do our part as we can and my own positive (or negative) energy does affect young minds. Hence the need for a “get fired up for elections” song.
BTW…that had the Jackson 5 on backup vocals.
Let’s face it, there are Stevie Wonder songs as well known as “Yesterday” or “White Christmas”
Some of Stevie’s hits are so well known that I’m not going to bother posting them here. A number of these hits are as big a part of the American songbook as any Cole Porter or Irving Berlin song. I’m not sure one can attend a wedding reception these days without hearing at least one Stevie Wonder hit. But it’s not quite that the hits were so big or so good, but rather it’s the quality of everything else.
The story of Stevland Morris is known to many. He was born in Saginaw Michigan and his mother moved him to Detroit. His father had run off. Stevie used the Morris last name as per his mother’s decision and it remains his legal name.
wikipedia--
He was born six weeks premature, which, along with the oxygen-rich atmosphere in the hospital incubator, resulted in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a condition in which the growth of the eyes is aborted and causes the retinas to detach; so he became blind.
He started playing musical instruments at a very early age. His skills appear best on drums, harmonica and keyboards.
Stevie wonder is perhaps one of the greatest harmonica players in music. His sound is distinctive. His melodic ability is outstanding.
At age 11 he was discovered by Motown records and began recording. Recorded in the opposite order they were released, his first album was a collection of ray Charles songs and the second was called “The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie”, even though it it is mostly R&B type songs. Including two written by Wonder.
Both were released in 1962. When Stevie was 12. Neither got any attention from the public. Stevie’s first hit came in 1963.
Stevie had two minor hits and albums after the success of Fingertips but failed to make any additional splash. He was in danger of being released from his recording contract. But his fortunes changed with the release of his next single at the end of 1965 which became a big hit early in 1966.
The album “Uptight” also featured Stevie doing perhaps his first song of social conscious, a cover of “Blowing In the Wind”
The next few years see classic Motown hits such as “I was Made to Love Her”, “For Once in my Life”, “My Cherie Amore”, “Signed, Sealed, Delivered”, and an excellent cover of “We Can Work It Out”.
In total, from 1962 until 1970, Stevie released 12 studio albums and 3 live albums. He had 20 top 40 singles, though only Fingertips was a number one. Several, however, were number one R&B hits. He also wrote the music for “Tears of a Clown”, the Smokey Robinson number one hit. That is substantial success for any artist. Its more hits than Wilson Pickett or Otis Redding had. But for Stevie Wonder, it was just act 1. And he wasn’t 21 yet.
Act 2 has a prologue. It’s a record I do not know well at all. “Where I’m Coming From” was released in April 1971. Stevie wrote all the songs with his wife at the time, Syreeta White. It was the last record Stevie made on his “first” contract with Motown. As Stevie turned 21 that year, Motown was legally bound to renegotiate Stevie’s contract. Or Stevie had the right to void it. This put him in a position where the label was forced to accept whatever album he gave them and this record was the first made without any outside label interference. The album only reached number 62 on the pop charts and 7 on the R&B charts.
If You Really Loved Me reached Number 8 on the pop charts on 4 on the R&B charts.
While “Never Dreamed You Leave Me In Summer” reached number 78 on the pop charts. It does, however, introduce the theme of seasonal abandonment that Stevie will explore in his best great hit.
Stevie renegotiated his contract with Motown, securing himself a much higher royalty rate and much more artistic control. This begins a period of productivity for Stevie in the 1970s that secures his stature in the pop music pantheon alongside James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley, The Beatles, and very few others. He begins to play most of the instruments on his records with his next release.
1972’s “Music of my Mind” peeked at number 21 on the charts, but its importance in music history is great. It is perhaps the first recording to feature synthesized bass and I’ve read suggestions that it is the first release of any African-American R&B release to utilize synthesizers. I would think Sun Ra recorded with Moog before this, but I don’t think you could call Sun Ra R&B music. Earlier usage of a Moog in popular music had already happened on “Abbey Road” and ELP’s “Lucky Man” would have already been released by this time. “Roundabout” also had been released by this time and Jan Hammer had already started using a Moog with The Mahavishnu Orchestra.
Stevie is also a master of the Clavinet. The clavinet is that harpischordy sounding instrument on so many Stevie songs that just simply sounds like the 1970s. Stevie makes good use of the instrument to take the role of a rhythm guitar. The clavinet becomes a central instrument in quite a bit of Funk and R&B of the 1970s. It allows keyboard players to play certain guitar like groves. Stevie is the master of the instrument. Sadly, the sound has become so associated with the 1970s that few record with clavinets anymore unless it’s a retro-funk act. Though it has survived in some reggae acts.
The album features one of what many consider to be Stevie’s greatest songs. “Superwoman (where were you when I needed you)”. It reached number 33 on the pop charts at the time.
That song was brilliantly covered by the late great Donny Hatheway. I’ve heard friends jokingly call it the African-American “Stairway to Heaven”, largely due to its length and suite like structure combined with the fact that the two were released at about the same time.
This album was followed at the end of 1972 with what is perhaps Stevie’s greatest album, “Taking Book”. This album featured “Superstition” and “You are the Sunshine of My Life”, but as I said it’s the non-hits that solidify Stevie’s greatness.
And the album includes one of Stevie’s great songs on social issues, “Big Brother”
I think perhaps the most impressive thing about this music is how….musical….it is. This is coming out at the same time James Brown is performing with Bootsy and Catfish and stripping harmony down to place emphasis on the beat and bass line. Stevie gives us chords and harmony. Stevie pushes the harmony to add the color tones to the chords usually reserved for a jazz setting. Not unlike Steely Dan, Stevie is incorporating jazz into his pop music to create sonic poems of beauty.
Talking Book is followed by the equally classic, “Innervisions” This album featured the hits “higher Ground” and the oft covered in the Jazz world “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a thing” and the classic “Living for the City”
Thing is. Via wikipedia--
On August 6, 1973, Wonder was in a serious automobile accident while on tour in North Carolina, when a car in which he was riding hit the back of a truck.[28][38] This left him in a coma for four days and resulted in a partial loss of his sense of smell and a temporary loss of sense of taste
This was 4 days before the commercial release of Innervisions.
And this was followed with 1974’s Fulfillingness’s First Finale which featured the number one hit, You Havn’t Done Nothing, that I posted at the start. Interestingly, back when Talking Book was released, Stevie toured as The Rolling Stone’s opening act which help give him wide exposure. Subsequently when Stevie could do a major tour with his live band, Wonderlove, his opening act was Bob Marley. I think this happened on the tour for Innervisions. Fulfillingness’ First Finale also features the reggae inspired hit, “Boogey On Reggae Woman”
When Stevie says “I’ld like to see you….” The meaning becomes complex :)
1975 did not see any new material from Stevie. But 1976 saw his masterpiece, “Songs In the Key of Life”.
Thematically, Stevie continues to sing about spirituality and social issues as well as love songs.
This one is one of my favorites. And En Vogue didn’t rip off the second half of this tune or anything like that for one of their hits….no…..
The album also featured Stevie’s instrumental “Contusion,” This tune had been performed live as early as 73. Here’s a live version from 1974
And Songs in the Key of Life also features one of the greatest pop songs ever recorded. Which also happens to feature Herbie Hancock on Rhodes
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And the record also included “Pastime Paradise”, later heavily sampled for the hip hop hit “Gangster’s Paradise”. And it had the gazillion selling hit, “I Wish” and Stevie’s tribute to the great Jazz artists of decades prior “Sir Duke”. And the hits “Isnt She Lovely” and “Another Star”
Stevie followed this with the moody “Journey through the Secret Life of Plants”. It sold well on its release, but it is not one his most popular recordings. The only hit was haunting “Send One Your Love”. But I absolutely adore the title track.
Hotter Than July came in 1980. This featured another reggae inspired song from Stevie. “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”
But also included Stevie’s song for Martin Luther King, which advocated a holiday in the great man’s name. Remember…this is 1980.
Stevie followed this with a greatest hits collection, Original Musiquarium Volume One. It’s a greatest hits of his 1970s albums and features four new cuts. Ribbon in the Sky, That Girl, a song about returning soldiers from Vietnam “Front Line”
And what is to me, Stevie’s last great song: “Do I DO” which features a cameo of Dizzy Gillespie at the end.
Ebony and Ivory comes after this. The sentiment behind the tune is good, but its not a favorite of mine due its sappy syrupy sound. I just called to say I love you comes after this, but that song sucks. Jungle Feaver comes after that, but its not very good either. After 20 years of batting about .900 Stevie’s songwriting slowed and was never again as strong. Same with Paul McCartney. Not many artist have more than two decades of constantly great music. Duke Ellington and Miles Davis and that’s probably it. Maybe Art Blakey. MAAAAAAYBE Keith and Mick. It’s no crime or fault to not be able to write at age 60 or 70 the quality of pop music you could when you were 22.
And of course Stevie still performs and still performs well.
I think Joe Henderson next week….but I could change my mind. Thanks for listening everyone. Please support your local jazz musicians and all local live music.