[Harp-L] Stevie Wonder Question

["Steve Merola" <stevemerola@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello Harp-l
I think Mr Buddha is correct. He seems to be able to play anything. I had
the opportunity to hear Stevie Wonder warming up before he added harmonica
on a BeBe Winans track. From what I could recognize, he played "Sonny Boy"
by Al Jolson from the 1920's, in a very jazzy style, pieces of the melody of
the song he was going to record, and something that someone more musically
educated than I told me was Rachmaninoff. Of course he played lots of jazzy
R&B licks as well. He can play quite fast and I think his extremely broad
knowledge of music unfortunately, hasn't been shared with the world, but
then again maybe this font of knowledge allowed him to play what he did that
day and on the date with Mr. Bennett.
There's lots more than "Fingertips" !
Steve Merola

Message: 9
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:11:20 -0700
From: Buddha <groovygypsy@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: re: [Harp-L] Stevie Wonder Question
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I think the deal is, Stevie's gift is the ability to connect to the
music regardless of style.  It's likely he can play just about
anything. This comes from knowing his instrument well enough that it's
a real extension of his voice.  Put him in a jazz setting and he plays
jazz. Put him in a blues setting and he plays blues.  Toots is likely
the same way. I know for sure that Howard Levy is like that.  If
you've got ears and a command of your instrument then nothing but your
imagination can stop you from making good music.


WVa Bob writes:
Got a question for the more knowlegable Stevie Wonder fans on the
list...Slim? Chris Smith?
On this clip and another Chris [I think] posted a while back, the one
with Stevie and Toots playing "Bluesette" together, we hear Stevie
playing in a jazzier vein than his [great] playing on his own
stuff...I'm no expert, but it sounds to me as though Stevie has jazz
chops for sure...the Bluesette clip in particular [he's playing in Bb
on that one, by the way, for those who think he can only get around in
a few keys]...so my question is this: has he always been able to do
this or does this indicate some relatively recent thing with his
playing? I mean we all know the guy's a genius and everything, but on
both these clips he plays fast jazz runs...has he alwasy been able to
do this?
WVa Bob
P.S. Probably he won't, but damn I'd love to hear Stevie make a jazz record!