one day that will stay with me forever is stevie wonder opening the 30th anniversary montreal jazz festival. after settling into our hotel, my friends and i arrived at mainstage around 3pm to nab some prime concert real estate. it was soundcheck and could hardly believe our ears as we approached the scene. stevie was rehearsing 'overjoyed' and 'higher ground'. then he greeted us with a robotic distortion: 'mont-re-al, ca-na-da' - everyone went wild.
our cell phone were no use so it was good to see folks interacting with each other rather than their crackberries and iphones. we met some really fun and interesting people and i even ran into an old uni friend. people started packing in. it got very hot, to the point we started removing our layers of clothing. hours went by talking, drinking, some people were smoking, my charming friend ky giving out his self-styled wonderlove t-shirts as we all groved to the dj pumping soul and r&b classics. more familiar faces. we enjoyed the company, the heat, the groove. everyone got into it. it was a good day.
when the rains came a multicoloured patchwork of umbrellas went up and our little group started dancing and singing, echoes rippling through the crowds nearby as we attracted attention and bemused smiles, nods and more singers... stevie was running late but we were having fun, the massive crowd doing the wave and singing 'my cherie amour' la-la-laaa-la-la-la's. we weren't gonna let a little wetness stop us.
when stevie finally came on stage, the clouds held their breath. the rain trickled off and stopped. the umbrellas came down and stevie declared that tonight we would to ignore the rumours and scandalous money-making media hype and dedicate the evening to celebrating the life and music of michael jackson. amen to that. then the band broke into "i can't help it", co-written by stevie and quincy jones for mj's 'off the wall' record. the 100,000+ crowd went nuts.
in fact, throughout the set, the pa system played mj tunes between performance pieces. and the entire place - including stevie and band - would just dance to them. a true and proper way to celebrate mj's music... not cover it, not sing over top of it, but to listen, to feel and to enjoy it. simply magical. mj's spirit was there with us that night, enjoying the moment with us too.
one highlight was when stevie decided they would "do it right" and play some jazz at the jazz fest! which included some miles davis and john coltrane - all done with the confidence of a team of musicians so tight and so good, to not only play soul and funk - alongside stevie - one minute, but then cover jazz masters with him the next.
another highlight - aisha morris - stevie's lovely daughter and one of his four back-up singers, who covered nat king cole's 'gonna laugh you right out of my life'. it the first time i heard the song and she gave me shivers.
and throughout the 2 1/2 hour concert, stevie might have had the most fun of us all. he played the harmonica, piano, he sang and danced and talked to us. a gifted musician and vocalist and a true lover of life, he cracked some jokes, asking the francophones in the crowd "voulez-vous coucher avec moi?"... stumbling at the beginning of a song, admitting in his good-natured laugh that forgot the words, then inviting the audience to sing middle eastern sounding vocal scales to a new track he's laying down... tough! the crowd had fun with it. and we danced and danced and danced and he gave us what we wanted to hear... (almost)!
as the show came to a close, light showers rained down over the crowd. they felt so good. a montage of mj tunes played out as all the musicians, backup singers and stevie himself came to the front of the stage. and everyone danced.
and then stevie said something that will always stay with me. he said: "if you have a big heart, love somebody. and if you have a really big heart, love everybody".
and with that, 15 minutes of glorious fireworks lit up the sky.
so for you my dears, here he is, jazzing it up and performing "higher ground" at the sound check we happened upon earlier that day:
taken from the compilation at the close of the century, available at steviewonder.net.
related:
nina simone - sinnerman
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