Motion Occupies Music: Stevie Wonder

Bits and Pieces:

There are few people I have had the pleasure to meet that have left me awestruck or as most would say star struck. One of these is Stevie Wonder.

I was working at 40 Park Ave. (36th St. and Park) in Suzanne Ciani’s 19th floor apartment studio. We were working on “Velocity of Love.” I think that was the second album we did together. Anyway, Suzanne was always on the cutting edge of procuring the latest electronic musical equipment, mostly through endorsements, whether it be from Roland or Yamaha, or in this case the Synclavier. The average person could identify this piece of equipment’s sound in the opening chords of Michael Jackson’s, “Beat It” (Wish I could insert a snip of it here.)

During the course of what was usually a 14hr weekend workday word came in that Stevie Wonder would be stopping by to check out the Synclav. I was out of my mind. I was going to meet Stevie Wonder!! Holy Shit!!
“Songs in the Key of Life” is still one of my all time favorite albums. Stevie Wonder, a true musical icon.

Sometime in the evening Stevie arrived with his brother and maybe one or two other people. I do not clearly remember. But what I do remember is him sitting down at the keyboard and riffing, going through the sounds and some tech talk as to the possibilities of the gear. Suzanne had the Synclavier print out Stevie’s playing and for one amazing, incredibly awkward moment, she somehow thought that he would be impressed with this printout. Stevie, being funny and gracious took the sheet of music from her and it was not until then that Suzanne realized what a foopah she had made. I watch the whole thing in horror, and could not believe what she was doing. Oh, well.

At some point, I wound up sitting at the dining table talking with him. He lived in Englewood, NJ at that time, and somehow we wound up talking bout Jersey. I had been reading Edgar Cayce, and somehow we got Into talking about Jersey vs. LA and earthquakes, and the fault that runs down the Hudson River, across Manhattan at 14th St. Kinda neat stuff. We were just chillin. Amazing!! What a great night. The only thing is that Suzanne’s camera strangely did not work that night, so there are no pictures. Hmmm, somehow maybe you just don’t have to “see” everything in order to hold on to the experience.