Stevie Wonder Madison Square Garden Concert Review

Many older musicians, for whatever reason, are no longer able to faithfully reproduce the music of their heyday, and they struggle to rearrange their songs to fit their current facilities. Perfect singer/songwriter/producer Stevie Wonder doesn’t have that problem: He brings a full backing band of more than 30 people, and depending on the mood of their leader, Mr. Wonder, They can go from loose to tempo effortlessly.

Steve, wearing a sparkling purple suit, sat in front of an assortment of keyboards, with a grand piano to his left. On top of that, he also used some harmonica for classic solos on hits like “Overjoyed.” To his far right is a string section of about six instrumentalists. This is followed by the trumpet section next to the percussionist. And then there are his backup singers. A bassist and several guitarists formed a team. The performers’ performances are sometimes dazzling. If you’ve ever heard your favorite song played in a theater room demo at a place like a Bose store, then you can understand or approximate what it’s like to have more than two dozen highly skilled musicians helping Stevie create the beautiful cacophony of sound.

If you looked around the garden at any time during the two-plus hours that Miracle rocked the stage, you would see the audience in three states: letting the music overwhelm them, dancing and singing loudly as if they were alone in the bathroom mirror, Take a short break from the festivities or pray to the God of Tamra that he will play one of their personal favorites. The night was titled “Sing Your Song!” and Wonder worked hard to make that happen for everyone in attendance. But creating the ultimate Stevie Wonder playlist is impossible: he has too many tracks, too many hits, to satisfy every fan. That said, Wonder did a good job showcasing his fan favorites, from “As” to “Village Ghetto Land,” which fit into the larger theme of the evening. So even if you can’t sing your Songs, you can sing your second or third favorite song.

He excerpted most of the songs from his tireless creative work in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when he seemed to have a bottomless jug of musical victory from which he poured every year. He kicked off the show with his latest single “Can We Fix Our Nation’s Broken Heart,” a teary-eyed song reminiscent of classic Wonder tracks but lacking the bite inherent in some of his best socially conscious work force. But no problem. He got to work immediately after that, hitting his peak with a performance of “You Are the Sunshine of My Life” that had the band sounding like they were performing during the halftime show at an HBCU football game.

This isn’t breaking news, but it needs to be said: Stevie Wonder’s performance is hard to imitate. Anyone who goes to see Stevie Wonder is going to be excited about just seeing Stevie Wonder. And, to his credit, even at the age of 74, he still put on a great show for his fans. As a performer, he would take a short break near the end to ask the audience if they were ready to go home, knowing the answer would be a resounding “No!” His only real intermission was when he put When the stage is turned over to singer/songwriter/pianist Shelea.

As a Wonder cadet, Sheléa appeared in a dazzling robe and introduced herself. The audience remained silent as she explained how to pronounce her name and called out her husband. Then she sat down at the grand piano and asked the audience a question: Does anyone here know where Stevie Wonder crosses paths with Aretha Franklin? Some fans perked up as she tapped her ivory fingers on the opening keys of Aretha Franklin’s 1973 hit “That’s What I’m Gonna Do.” cheered.

Any doubts the audience may have had about Sheléa disappeared as she belted out the song. The blocks were also completely broken and she began to treat the garden. It’s quite a feat to sit down at Stevie Wonder’s piano and make people want to hear more of you. But that’s exactly what Shelia did.

Throughout the night, Wonder shared some well-worn stories from the making of the songs, like the time Tony Bennett heard him singing in a nearby studio and came up to him and told him not to butcher “For Once in My Life,” or It is withering and struggling. He told the audience that “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” was inspired by meeting a girl he said was so good, “she took sight from the blind,” which was a silly joke he The drummer played the rim shot. At one point during the night, Wonder pointed to a fan sitting near the stage and told a story about how he paid him to shout out his new fiancé before entering the 1964 Dixie Bowl The Billboard Hot 100 chart-topping song “Chapel of Love.” Most Wonder fans have heard many of the stories before, but hearing them there, along with 19,000 other fans, was special.

You know what’s not fun? Go to a concert and feel like you’re the only one having a good time. In the age of smartphone capture and social media live streaming, it’s not uncommon to look around and see everyone standing still, watching a show through a handheld device screen. While this concert was recorded at every moment, most ticket holders (except for three people watching the Yankees game on their phones) were singing and dancing as if they were with friends and a great DJ Attending a house party, and not at a Stevie Wonder concert at Madison Square Garden.

It’s so inspiring to see. It feels as though everyone understands that, despite the show’s deplorable pretense, the fact that we’re seeing the greatest musicians of all time is a huge gift that cannot be given to the algorithm. The show’s intended purpose is to mend our nation’s broken hearts, a heavy-duty goal—some would say an impossible one (Steve would say, “I believe in possibility!”), as he had throughout the show. late) – but what it really does is remind everyone in the room what effortless joy feels like.