Watched the opening of Saturday Night Live last night, including the opening song (a funny one about not singing a song) from Justin Timberlake, and was struck again by a fact that I haven't written about nearly enough. I think there's no doubt about it: Stevie Wonder is the most influential musician in pop, rock or r&b music in the last fifty years. Turn on the radio (or TV, as in the case above) and you'll hear him in almost everything. His singing, harmonic innovations, tremendous attention to detail in building rhythms (the episode from the Classic Albums series about Songs in the Key of Life provides some cool stuff about his process), and his hugely under-rated accomplishments as a lyricist, all of it grounded in the Motown school of music - well, it's no wonder that his influence is up there with anyone you could name (Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, James Brown, like that). And amazingly, he's equally great as a singles artist (example:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkQKk2ukiyw) or album artist (the five released between 1972 and 1976, all masterpieces - here's the discography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevie_Wonder_discography, and here's "Saturn" from Songs in the Key of Life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3KpUO6t9qQ).

Stevie Wonder's music is fascinating in many ways. The aspect that I'm concerned with today is the process with which he layers rhythms one on top of the other during the recording process. The best place to hear it is "Superstition", from Talking Book (1972), where he overdubbed clavinet and Moog bass parts over his original drum track. (In fact, he played everything on it but the trumpet and saxophone parts, which he wrote.) His drumming on the track, while clearly the work of a great musician (the groove is massive), is also clearly not the work of a professional drummer, in the sense that it is utterly free of memorized patterns and/or vocabulary that a studio musician relies on. The end result is one of the greatest recordings in r&b history (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8HlHpACXyw&feature=related), and one of the most influential, because it was at this point that the music began to be centered around producers and arrangers as opposed to bands and their leaders. It's somewhat ironic, because Wonder learned much of his craft from a band - the brilliant Motown hit-makers that called themselves the Funk Brothers. But that's for another day.

Stevie Wonder's Fulfillingness' First Finale (1974) might be the greatest r&b album of all time. The writing, arranging, singing, and playing are all at a level best described as unmatched. The album should be listened to as a suite (i.e. without interruption), and taken as a model for anyone involved in music - including listeners. The album (as the title suggests) is a sort of culmination of the years of work that preceded it - especially his time spent with the musicians of the Motown studio band known as The Funk Brothers. The influence of these musicians, and particularly the genius bassist, James Jamerson, can be heard throughout this record. I think it's clear that the record was intended, partially at least, as a tribute, and that's why Jamerson appears on only one track, "Too Shy to Say". (For a more representative example of Jamerson's work with Wonder, listen to "Hello, Young Lovers" on Ma Cherie Amour from 1969.) I'll be writing more on both of these giants in posts to come.

Yesterday, while writing about "Little Wing", I mentioned that in the song Hendrix transcended his rhythm and blues roots. A couple of points: 1. Rhythm and Blues was a term invented by Jerry Wexler, a producer for Atlantic Records. He was looking to replace "race music" (understandably) to describe African-American popular music. Rhythm and blues, therefore, is not the same thing as blues, which is an older and more specific (or narrower) genre that is primarily based on a particular AAB, twelve-bar song form. (Stevie Wonder is usually considered the greatest living r&b artist. B.B. King is at the top of the blues list.) 2. Both r&b and the blues are crucial to Hendrix' playing, and he expanded the possibilities of both styles. 3. Most lead guitar blues playing is based on a pentatonic (i.e. five-note) scale. This leads some to believe that the music made from it is somehow simpler than other improvised forms (jazz, for example). This is a mistake. One doesn't count the colours in a painting to determine its complexity or power. The same goes for music. Hendrix' playing rivals anyone's in any genre. If you don't believe me, listen to "Come On (Part 1)" from Electric Ladyland (1968).