The London O2 arena was packed as people danced the night away to Stevie Wonder’s musical extravaganza, featuring some of the world’s most talented musicians. As he played his greatest hits that night, the audience followed him all the way as they knew every lyric and groove to every song. There is so much to admire about this two hour special, but here are some of my highlights:

Spain

‘Spain’ is one of Chick Corea’s most well known pieces but Stevie Wonder and his band covered this song to perfection. The structure of the piece was kept the same, and every single musician on stage had their own 24 bar solo of which their raw talent and skill was on full display. It started off with Victoria Theodore playing a sombre melodic intro on her keyboard, reminiscent of the ethereal opening from Corea’s original recording. Wonder then joined in with his harmonica improvisations after which the band broke out into the recognisable opening melody, but with an added soulful R&B twist.

Ryan Kilgore burst into life playing the first solo on his saxophone, followed by the smooth electric guitar of Errol Cooney. Roman Johnson next performed his solo on the keyboard, utilizing the pitch bending element of his playing. Dwight Adams was next introduced to play his trumpet solo which didn’t fail to pierce through the arena with its sharp, poignant sound. Up next was Kyle Bolden on his electric guitar, then Munyungo Jackson on percussion, followed by Victoria Theodore with another keyboard solo, who was then followed by the coolest man on the planet, Nathan Watts. With his low tones, he effortlessly navigated through all the necessary grooves to deliver his solo of bassline mastery! Fausto Cuevas next played his conga solo, followed by the man himself, Stevie Wonder on his small grand piano.

The final solo was performed by Stanley Randolph on the drums, and this was my personal favourite. For an unpitched instrument, it was just as melodic as any of the pitched instrument solos. It was a masterclass! He even had the timing and awareness to accurately cue in the rest of the band as his frenzied solo came to an end. This is the mark of a great drummer. The band then rejoined in unison to play the ending melody of the piece and Randolph helped to drive the groove home to finish!

A Man’s Gotta Do / Part-Time Lover

As the percussionist Munyungo Jackson started up a swing groove from his cajon, Stevie Wonder began to conduct the audience in various chants. The men sang, ‘A man’s gotta do, what a man’s gotta do, sometimes. Not all the time…’, whilst the women sang ‘no, no, no, no, no!’. This then eventually turned into the opening ‘do do do’ riff from the song ‘Part-Time Lover’. The audience continued to dance and chant along to the ongoing cajon groove, until Nathan Watts finally queued in his bassline to begin this brilliantly crafted soulful tune. As the musical elements slowly came together, it just proved how Wonder certainly knew how to build a up great song and how to also conduct an audience to have a good time!

Isn’t She Lovely

Stevie Wonder and his band played ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ at the latter end of the concert, and it came across as a very heartfelt performance. This song was written in celebration of his daughter’s birth, Aisha Morris, who was one of the performing backing singers that night. Wonder only sang the first verse before breaking into the iconic harmonica solo, and it was clear that he was pouring his heart into it. Just as how one sings when speaking isn’t enough, Wonder’s singing wasn’t enough so he burst into song with his harmonica! He then handed over the melody to the audience, who sang as one big chorus to finish.

As

For Wonder’s final song of the night, he played ‘As’ and also delivered a final closing message to the audience:

“I want to say to all of you one thing before I go. You know, two years ago, 2006, 31st of May, I lost my mother, and it was the saddest day of my life as you can understand. But do you know what my mother told me in a dream I had after that? She said, “boy, you better get yourself up there and do what you need to do, and spread your message of love to the people.”, and that let me know that she was ok, and so I just come here to say to all of you, I thank you for everything that you’ve done for my career, for all the joy that we have shared together, for all the successes that we’ve had, for The King Holiday Bill, for every single thing, for all our involvement in fighting against apartheid in South Africa, for everything that we have done together, and all the people that through you supporting my music and my family, I’ve been able to do wonderful things for. I thank you for that, and most of all I thank you for making it possible through you supporting me to renew my mother a far better life than maybe she would’ve had. I thank you, I love with all my heart, and I want you to know this… Use your heart to love somebody, and if your heart is big enough, use your heart to love everybody. Until we get together again, I send you love from up above, God bless you!”

The band then played him off in style, closing out the night of a truly joyous musical occasion.