Smooth Stevie woos Meadowbrook crowd with decades of hits

Wednesday, September 12th, 2007

By Susan Whitall

Photos by Bryan Mitchell

The Meadow Brook Music Festival show allowed the audience to witness an iconic '60s Motown star still at the top of his game. He told the crowd that he's warming up for a full-fledged tour early next year.

The show was billed as a "A Wonder Summer's Night," but a sold-out crowd of 7,700 shivered under blankets at Wednesday night's Stevie Wonder concert at the Meadow Brook Music Festival.

Still, if sound has a season, Stevie Wonder's voice is suspended in an eternal summer: warm, sultry and as full-bodied as when he was wowing audiences in the '70s.

Wonder didn't take the stage until 8:48 p.m., led by his beautiful daughter and backup singer Aisha Morris (immortalized as a gurgling baby in his '70s hit "Isn't She Lovely.")

Then he spoke to the audience, before a word of music was played.
 

"It is truly my honor to be back here in Detroit," he said, "all praise and thanks to God for the ability to perform today." The singer introduced Aisha, chided the fellows in the audience about ogling her, and spoke of how the idea for this brief "Wonder Summer's Night" tour came about after his beloved mother Lula Mae Hardaway died a year ago May 31.

"And we as boys know, mother is always our number one girl," Wonder said. He reminisced about living on Breckinridge Street in Detroit, running fearlessly through the alley and tossing old car tires, because mother Lula Mae gave him the confidence to be fearless.

But after Hardaway died, her son found himself without the will to perform. Then, Wonder says, her voice came to him. He went on to do the show in Hawaii: "I realized that music was a way for me to express the joy and thank God for the blessing."

He quickly assembled a brief, last-minute tour, much to the skepticism of his booking agent, and there he was, on the stage of Meadow Brook.

Wonder is telling people that this brief outing is a warm-up for a full-fledged tour early next year, his first major tour in way more than a decade. Some estimate he hadn't done such an ambitious tour in 20 years.

Next up was a flawless, funky "Master Jammer," when he drew the famous harmonica out of his pocket, to cheers.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson could be seen peeking from the side of the stage at the audience, a true rainbow coalition who came from city and suburb, of all races and surprisingly, more than just baby boomers.

Once he'd dedicated the evening to his mother, Wonder went to the grand piano, daughter Aisha next to him at the electronic keyboard, and both started the song "Love's In Need of Love Today."

As the song progressed, the whole band assembled around him, including the charismatic Keith John, his only male backup singer and the son of the late Little Willie John. Late in the set, Wonder introduced him and had John sing a sizzling rendition of his father's signature tune, "Fever."

John wasn't the only Detroiter onstage; bassist Nathan Watts is a local, and star keyboard session player Greg Phillinganes was a special guest.

"Visions" ended with an impassioned cry "Stop it! Stop the war! Stop the killing!" But his most impassioned rant came at the very end of the show, when he chided those who commit violence in the name of religion. "Those who hate, why don't you just die and go to hell?"

Wonder moved from piano to keyboards, and his seven-piece, percussion-heavy band kept up with him, although a horn section would have made the show.

The biggest fun was the hits from Wonder's funk period; "Livin' In the City" brought everybody to their feet, and soon the talk box came out.

We were OK with the talkbox, although perhaps not having as much fun with it as Wonder, and when "Higher Ground" came around it was a welcome blast of no-holds barred funk again.

What makes seeing this 57-year-old launch himself into the concert arena again so enjoyable is that we can witness an iconic '60s Motown star still at the top of his game.

Wonder's voice changed, famously, when he was caught in that awkward phase just after the "Little Stevie" years. But once his voice changed, that was it.

It's still there in all its supple wonder, with a burnished depth that is still revealing itself, still a surprise in a middle-aged man with a renewed sense of mission.