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Grammy Jam: Wonder


By Tom Roland




Bottom line: Huge body of work attracts huge body of admirers.


At the start of the concert, the audience was promised more than two hours of music. In fact, the second annual Grammy Jam took more than four hours to salute Stevie Wonder and still left plenty of gems that went untapped.

Held Saturday at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, the event featured performers from jazz, R&B and pop, with different configurations of artists covering Wonder tunes while the man of honor experienced it from the audience. That brought its share of pressure: New hitmaker Chris Brown confessed jitters and had to restart his performance of "I Was Made to Love Her," before copping the innocent tones of Wonder's original performance and borrowing dance moves from Wonder's former Motown labelmate, Michael Jackson.

Eric Benet brought vocal slides and shudders to Wonder's reggae "Master Blaster (Jammin')"; India.Arie gave a husky, ethereal reading of "Heaven Is 10 Zillion Light Years Away," and Angie Stone hooked up with funkmeister George Clinton on a lengthy version of "Superstition" that slowly evolved into Parliament's "Tear the Roof off the Sucker (Give up the Funk)."

Jazz artists were well-represented, with Lizz Wright delivering an effective torch reading of "Make Sure You're Sure," George Benson smoothly covering the bittersweet "My Cherie Amour" and George Duke applying a piano solo to "Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You)" that ably matched the song's mix of linear verses and interval-dominated chorus.

Gospel got a nod with the Soul Seekers' bristling harmonies on "Jesus Children of America." A couple of pop artists handled their contributions with surprising aplomb: Darius Rucker's voice was well-suited for Hootie & the Blowfish's take on "Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing," and teen singer Jesse McCartney believably delivered "Knocks Me Off My Feet."

There were a few clunkers. Jamie Foxx, admittedly unrehearsed, uncomfortably interrupted emcee-bass player Rickey Minor to take over the stage for a sloppy version of "I Wish," though a call-and-answer audience participation rescued it a bit. And Mary Mary added elongated drama to "I Just Called to Say I Love You," a song that's already annoying.

Wonder has won 22 Grammys and picked up six more nominations last week. He closed the show with two songs from his current "A Time to Love" album, plus such engaging warhorses as "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" and "Another Star." His mix of melodic genius and spontaneous creativity remain impressive, and the commentaries of "Living for the City" and "Higher Ground" seem as relevant today as they did when first recorded more than 30 years ago.

Perhaps the best part of the Grammy Jam was its connection of a living legend with a future generation. The salute raised money for the Entertainment Industry Foundation's work with music education, and a number of youngsters showed their wares during the performance. Particularly impressive was 12-year-old Spensha Baker, who sang "Love's in Need of Love Today" with clear-voiced maturity. Her apparent connection with the song's positivity gave the evening a hopeful note for the future.

Finally Stevie Wonder pays tribute to the woman who so obviously influenced him.. India Aire

I thought this was about the UNCF thing...

CinisterCee said:

I so wish I could have seen this!

manthevan said:

Wasn't this the last thing Lou Rawls did?

kdj997 said:

That's the UNCF tribute you are thinking of...

Did anyone see this? Who was the (blind?) guy with sunglasses playing guitar on I Just Called To Say I Love You with Herbie Hancock?

JackieBlue said:

Probably Raul Midon. I missed it.

BlaqueKnight said:

Thanks. I missed it too. I only caught the tail end of while flipping past the UNCF telethon (they were showing the performance). He definitely caught my attention when he mimicked the sound of a trumpet with his mouth.
[Edited 1/7/06 22:01pm]

JackieBlue said:

Okay, that was definately Raul. He's the only person I've seen do that.

What time did this air???

CalhounSq said:

It aired between 7pm-11pm on NBC.

Aah Damn

Anyone know if and when it'll air again

My mistake .....there are two tributes to Stevie. The one airing was recorded in September. The article above is from a recent tribute in Dec. Hopefully that one will aire also.

funkyslsistah said:

Thanks

I'm in the EST time zone and the tribute is on NBC now.
[Edited 1/8/06 10:34am]

Okay I just saw the performance in it's entirety. Didn't catch that Greg Phillinganes was on keyboards as well. I thought it was a beautiful performance and a great interpretation of a song that has been played to death. I had thought about getting Herbie Hancock's Possibilities but never got around to it. Now that I know the song in on there I'm going to pick it up and check out Raul's music too.

CalhounSq said:

It's gonna air again on BET today at 4.00 PM

As far as I know, Stevie will be in concert together with Earth wind & fire in Aruba, may this year. Check out www.aruba.com for more info on the soulmusic festival.

I'm in New York and the UNCF show is on NBC right now (it's 2:30pm). It's been on for at least 1 1/2 hours...cause they have a lot of commercials & features on UNCF recepients & traditionally black colleges.

I thought that Prince was in the audience so I've been sort of watching (wasn't there a thread saying that) but so far, no P. sightings....

I have to say that opera rendition of They Won't Go When I Go was possibly the worst cover I've heard of a song. I really hated that. George Michael's version is INFINITELY better (imho). And I don't get what the hype about Kirk Franklin is--he didn't even sing on his song--the back-up choir did it all. He just ran around yelling "How you doin' Uncle Stevie?" Could someone explain his claim to fame (other than the porn addiction part)?

it's on BET right now 7pm est