If you've been following this series of modern day musicians, you may remember a concert I mentioned with the Rolling Stones. It is true that the Stones were able to hold the audience and follow their hands, so to speak. But even before Mick Jagger strut out on stage, the opening act was Stevie Wonder = a living definition of a hard act to follow. If I had just seen his opening act, I could've left knowing that I had seen a great show = but I admit I would've definitely been disappointed at missing the Stones. But there was no question that Stevie Wonder had prepared the crowd for the excitement of Mick Jagger
Today,ΩåΩ I would like to talk about an artist who can fill a stadium with joy using one riff, one chord change, and one impossibly confident note on a harmonica.
That same Stevie Wonder.
Composer, singer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, activist.
A child prodigy who did not burn out.
A hitmaker who refused to choose between romantic love songs and songs that tell hard truths.
A blind musician whose music often seems to see the world more clearly than many of us who use our eyes.
In this episode, I’d like to walk through his background,
the forces that shaped him,
the run of hits that re-wired popular music,
his effects on other artists,
and how his blindness is not a side note, but part of how he developed an uncanny vision for sound, people, and justice.
Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
