Stevie Wonder - Musikladen Beat Workshop 1974 - Part 1
Stevie Wonder - Musikladen Beat Workshop 1974 - Part 2
Stevie Wonder 1974 concert on German TV show Musikladen. Wonderlove members were: Stevie Wonder, keyboards, vocals; Reggie McBride, bass; Michael Sembello, lead guitar; Marlo Henderson, rhythm guitar; Ollie. E. Brown, drums; and vocalists Shirley Brewer (with the glasses on), Lani Groves, and Deniece Williams.
The ladies are amazing, and Wonder throws in quotes from “Danke Shoen” and “Signed, Sealed and Delivered.” Abruptly, he cuts that tune short, and the band slams into the brilliant fusion masterpiece that later emerged on Songs in the Key of Life, “Contusion.” Everything about this is right: Wonder on electric piano, Sembello crushing, McBride and Brown laying down a nasty funky bass, and the ladies on tambourines.
Next Wonder romps on clavinet as the band soars on “Higher Ground,” a track from Innervisions, which had been released the previous August. Brown’s work at drum kit is magnificent. There is another stop/start as they move to “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” (also from Innervisions). Presumably this was to get as many songs in as possible in the confined television time. The ladies offer fine backing vocals to Wonder’s lead.
Next is the ballad “I Can See The Sun in Late December,” a song Wonder wrote for Roberta Flack. Two more songs from the new album are next. “He’s Misstra Know-It-All” again intertwines the four voices together in a heavenly chorus.
It is amazing seeing Wonder perform this music live that has become part of the American fabric. That goes double for “Living for the City.” Sembello is tweaking that synthesizer as Wonder plays electric piano, and the ladies are again front and center. Brown then kicks that unmistakable beginning to “Superstition” (Talking Book), Wonder dancing over his clavinet. This is a powerful if all-too-short version of the song, and the music fades under the closing titles.
The ladies are amazing, and Wonder throws in quotes from “Danke Shoen” and “Signed, Sealed and Delivered.” Abruptly, he cuts that tune short, and the band slams into the brilliant fusion masterpiece that later emerged on Songs in the Key of Life, “Contusion.” Everything about this is right: Wonder on electric piano, Sembello crushing, McBride and Brown laying down a nasty funky bass, and the ladies on tambourines.
Next Wonder romps on clavinet as the band soars on “Higher Ground,” a track from Innervisions, which had been released the previous August. Brown’s work at drum kit is magnificent. There is another stop/start as they move to “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” (also from Innervisions). Presumably this was to get as many songs in as possible in the confined television time. The ladies offer fine backing vocals to Wonder’s lead.
Next is the ballad “I Can See The Sun in Late December,” a song Wonder wrote for Roberta Flack. Two more songs from the new album are next. “He’s Misstra Know-It-All” again intertwines the four voices together in a heavenly chorus.
It is amazing seeing Wonder perform this music live that has become part of the American fabric. That goes double for “Living for the City.” Sembello is tweaking that synthesizer as Wonder plays electric piano, and the ladies are again front and center. Brown then kicks that unmistakable beginning to “Superstition” (Talking Book), Wonder dancing over his clavinet. This is a powerful if all-too-short version of the song, and the music fades under the closing titles.
