Little Stevie Wonder

Little Stevie Wonder grew up, as we all know.  Now he shares Ann Wilson’s tailor (and that’s the last of the weight jokes, I promise).

I had a rare opportunity to see Stevie Wonder live Saturday, at the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  It was an extremely pleasant surprise.

I haven’t been to a casino in years.  The Borgata was an interesting place.  There were more stunningly attractive women there than I have ever seen in one place before, employee and guest.  Suffice it to say there were very few in the casino with jeans and t-shirts. The only place we could find to eat quickly was the Bobby Flay Steak restaurant.  One look at the menu told me I had no business being there.   I have never seen a ten dollar side dish before (yeah, I don’t get out much).

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Side note: one of the reasons I don’t get out much, finances aside, is that we tend to cook our own food.  After a many years of eating out, we realized that we like our cooking a whole lot better than that which we pay for on the outside.  We have a certain style: it has no name so we can just refer to it as American Murder.  It tends to be spicy; loaded with garlic and hot stuff.

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So off we went to the show area.  It was surprisingly small - appearing roughly the size of a small local theater.  I had figured Stevie Wonder for stadiums, but I don’t get out much (nor does Stevie).

The first thing that bit me was the friendliness of the audience.  Everybody seemed to be turning around and talking to everybody else.  If you ever wonder about race relations, come to a Stevie Wonder concert. Some folks in our area were interested in my buddy’s iPhone, as they wanted to know how the Phillies were doing.

Things looked like they were about to get even more interesting, as the young lady who sat next to me explained that I had to cut her some slack if she started banging on my leg because she gets very excited.  I asked her if she spanked too, to which she replied, “Whichever you like better.”  Much to my dismay, she kept removing herself from her seat to dance in the aisle.

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Only having seen brief clips of Stevie on video, I had no idea what to expect.  Same went for most people in my area.

Let me say right off the top that Stevie started on ten and only went up from there.

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WAY TOO MUCH TALENT

Stevie Wonder is a frightening talent.  He can sing like an angel, with a tremendous range.  He can play piano like no other.  He is a master of the clavinet (the keyboard in Superstition).

In addition to playing all that plus the harmonicas, Stevie played the audience like a master.  You could see him building tension and release in the music and the crowd.  The crowd was like putty in his hands.  Stevie strikes me as a big five year old in an adult body: he’d make a joke then smile like a madman.  It was magical to watch.

There were some huge harmonicas, one with a slider that seemed to bend pitch.  At one point Stevie left the stage and returned with an Obama mask for Halloween.  That was hilarious.

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ISN’T SHE LOVELY

One of the backup singers escorted Stevie out and seemed to fuss over him.  She was later introduced at Aisha.  Wow - Aisha is Stevie’s daughter!  Then it hit me…. `Isn’t She Lovely’ was written at Aisha’s birth.  This grown woman is Aisha.  God, I’m old.

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THE MUSICIANS

There was no sonic territory left untouched, even potentially, with the instrumentation.  At the rear of the stage was a drummer, surrounded by two percussionists.  These guys were almost a band by themselves.

Keeping with the theme of Three, there were three keyboardists - Stevie and two others, one female.  Three vocalists were stage left.  Two horns stage right.  Two guitarists and a bassist were sort of in the midst of things.

Unfortunately the guitarists were also in the midst of the mix, mostly lost.  This was obviously a big disappointment for me, being a guitarist myself.

You have to be top of the line to play with Stevie Wonder and these folks were no exception.  The first thing I noticed was that there was no set list: Stevie would make some sort of noise or play an intro to indicate what was next and the band was expected to MAKE IT HAPPEN.  And they did.

I didn’t know most of the musicians but definitely remembered the bassist - Nathan Watts.  Didn’t catch the drummer’s name but this guy was one of the stars of the show for my money.  He held it together solidly like no other.  It would be a privilege to play with this fellow.

One of the percussionists had a very interesting thing that looked like a cymbal, if it were cut in a strip about two inches wide and hanging down.  Never saw that before.

One guitarist played mostly custom axes.  The other played mostly Strats and a Taylor acoustic or two.  Both used newer Boogie amps.  Both were super competent but this was mostly gleaned by watching them; they were rarely heard.  At the end everyone did some ferocious soloing.

Stevie stuck mainly to a grand piano but to its left were a Motif and a Clavinet.  I couldn’t tell what the other keyboardists were using with the exception of another Clavinet.

IN SHORT

Go see him - you won’t regret it.