Jazz Soul of Little Stevie Wonder [Import]

I'm lucky enough to have purchased this while it WAS in print and it's one of my favorites.It's a whole other side of
Wonder-playing jazz Ray Charles-inspirede 60's soul notably on
the full,instrumental version of "Fingertips" and other upbeat
numbers such as "Manhattan At 6","Paulsby" and "Bam".This is Stevie's first and only all inrtumental album and even if it was
recorded 40 years ago he should seriously consider making
another.

Listening to this album,one I first heard and was very excited about when I first got it on CD when I was 16 reminds me of just how prophetic a lot of this was to Stevie Wonder's musical future. At this point Stevie,a discovery of Miracle Ronnie White was baught to Motown as a child prodigy-a tweenaged multi instrumentalist whose speciality was the "blues harp" (or harmonica) and bongos. The surprising things about this album is the effect it captures. During 1963 the Motown sound was still very much in development and this album perfectly captured what came before. With Clarance Paul and Henry Cosby onboard for most of this music,as they'd be for the next several years of Stevie's career this album was a firm reminder of the jazz pedigree of the musicians involved,not to mention the talents of Stevie Wonder even at this very early stage. So this album was an instrumental rather than a vocal one to express this point better.

Overall the sound of this album is populated with bluesy,jazzy rhythmic sounds that pretty much go all over the spectrum. "Fingertips" starts out the set,set at a different harmonic tone than the more famous hit and features a strong afro-latin feel with the flute and Stevie's bongo solos. That flavor returns on both "Soul Bongo" and Stevie's try at the full drum kit on "Manhattan At Six'. On the snappy,bass driven "The Square" and "Paulsby" he has a go on harmonica on two tracks that have a prominant jazzy blues flavor and contributes a self written number of his own "Session Number 112" to the same effect. "Some Other Time" shows Stevie's ability at instrumentally interpreting ballads on harmonica-a trait that would serve him greatly in later years. Another self written piece "Wondering" finds Stevie doing his best Jimmy Smith/Booker T type organ inflections on what sounds like an early Mar Key's/MG's Stax instrumental. Something similar happens on the closer "Bam" written by Berry Gordy himself.

More jazz sounding instrumentally and thoroughly music oriented (being an all instrumental album) than much of anything Stevie Wonder would do in the future,this album will surprise not only people who are familiar with Stevie's famous 70's music (needless to say) but even those who still hold true mainly to his mid-late 60's hits. The sound doesn't seem to owe much to the hit factory Motown mentality while,as the title will tell one focuses on a full blooded soul-jazz sound more in the vein of Wonder's early and well known mentor Ray Charles. Most familiar with Charles' instrumental albums of the late 50's will likely find this more in tune with that than any early Motown session but that was the idea from the beginning. Stevie was his own distinctive talent and even in the beginning Motown knew he couldn't be boxed in by their assembly line sound. So for the early Motown sound this album is notable not only for how it presents the artist but for it's individuality.

the young stevland morris of which motown chairman berry gordy renamed him little stevie wonder,guided the young child genius thru a series of unsucssesful singles that failed 2 chart nationally.singles such as 'mother thank you' which was originally called 'you made a vow'then was renamed 'thank you (for loving me all the way)/'i call it pretty music,but the old people call it the blues'/'little water boy'/'contract on love'
motown's emphasis during the decade of the 1960s was singles.(because concept albums during that time did not exist)albums back then were secondary-singles were first priority.the reason why motown chairman berry gordy wanted little stevie's first album 2 be a instrumental album was because the kid's voice was still maturing and still a little thin.his voice was nice but gordy wanted his voice 2 mature with time,so gordy decided
2 release wonder's very first album with the main focus on the young kid's versatility as a talented musician that excels on a variety of instruments including bongos,harmonica,drums,organ,piano.with direction aided by wonder's older mentor clarence paul and the motown band.

the album opens with the original version of 'fingertips'which is more musically focused on it's instrumentation and sound.on this original version of the song,stevie is featured on the bongos which is odd...in my opinion he should have been on harmonica on this piece(of which he later did play on the more exciting live version.)'square'is the first track on this album of which stevie plays the harmonica.'soul bongo'of which was written by clarence paul and marvin gaye finds stevie on the bongos again but this time with a more spicier sound.'manhattan at six'is the premier drum piece on this album with little stevie blasting at full force with his drumming.you'd have 2 hear this piece 2 believe it.stevie's drumming is explosive!/'paulsby'(the song's name is a combination of stevie's mentor clarence paul's last name and motown's producer henry cosby)is the first song on the album where little stevie displays his soulful talent on the organ including harmonica-his organ playing is the main focus on this track.'some other time'is my favorite track on this album with stevie on the harmonica and is the album's longest track.'some other time'is also the album's most mellow track.'wondering'is an uptempo track with stevie again on organ but this time stevie's organ playing is at a much faster pace.stevie also co-wrote the song with clarence paul under one of his real surnames-judkins.'session number 112'(also co-written with paul)is a laid back 'mean' groove with little stevie on the piano-harmonica.'bam'(written by berry gordy)has little stevie on harmonica.the song also has jazz shadings of the legendary jazzman jimmy smith."the jazz soul of little stevie" is an album that concentrates on little stevie wonder's versatile musicianship without the vocals and is a precursor 2 later instrumental albums such as "eivets rednow"(1968) and wonder's later mature instrumental masterpiece "journey through the secret life of plants"(1979).