Wonder brings Key to NLR

Let's get this straight from the get-go: Stevie Wonder didn't speak the truth when he sang he was born in Little Rock in his 1967 hit single, "I Was Made to Love Her." He was, of course, born in Saginaw, Mich., and his name at birth May 10, 1950, was Stevland Hardaway Morris.

(Lefty Frizzell had already sung "I was born in Saginaw, Michigan" in his hit 1964 country song named, appropriately enough, "Saginaw, Michigan.")

And to be fair, the song where Little Rock got mentioned was created not just by Wonder, but with three other people: his mother, Lula Mae Hardaway, Sylvia Moy and the producer, Henry Cosby. (Moy has said that her mother was from Arkansas and served as the inspiration for her part as a co-writer of the song.)

So there.

But if he had been born in Little Rock, Wonder never spent much time checking out his beginnings. No one who was queried could recall a Wonder concert at Barton Coliseum, the venue most likely to have hosted him in central Arkansas. Out of a trio of knowledgeable local music observers and fans (Tom Wood at KHKN, 94.9 "Tom-FM"; Kelley Bass, onetime music columnist at the former Arkansas Gazette; and Kenneth King, a documentary filmmaker who helped create a museum at Barton Coliseum), none of them recalled Wonder performing in Arkansas, unless it was in a 1960s Motown or Dick Clark "Caravan of Stars" sort of package tour.

That brings us to now, with Wonder coming to Verizon Arena on a tour that doesn't have ties to a new album or a "greatest hits" situation -- a tour that is focused on re-creating one of Wonder's most acclaimed albums, the double LP Songs in the Key of Life, released in September 1976.

It was an album -- Wonder's 21st release -- that took two years to complete and involved 129 guest musicians, including George Benson, Herbie Hancock, Minnie Riperton, Jim Horn, Deniece Williams, Syreeta Wright and even pedal steel guitarist Sneaky Pete Kleinow. The album went on to win four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Further commendation came in 2005 when Rolling Stone magazine named it No. 57 on its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album's best known singles are "Another Star," "I Wish," "Sir Duke," "Isn't She Lovely" and "As."

In December 2013, Wonder did a benefit concert at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles, performing the album in its entirety, and in November 2014 he began his current trek across the United States and Canada to showcase Songs in the Key of Life, with the tour apparently coming to a close at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 24.

For what to expect, a check of a St. Louis Post-Dispatch review of the Oct. 25 concert at the Scottrade Center reveals that Wonder performed the album's 21 songs, mostly in order. Backed at times by a horn section, percussion section, string section, backing vocalists and a choir, Wonder alternated between a playing grand piano, an upright piano and various keyboards and holding a microphone and standing on the stage, sometimes with the instrument that first made him famous, the harmonica.

The show, lasting more than three hours, incorporated some Wonder songs not on Songs in the Key of Life and versions of other artists' songs, such as The Beatles' "Yesterday" and The Impressions' "People Get Ready."

Style on 11/03/2015