The last couple of months, I have discovered Stevie Wonder in a serious way. The first album I got was “Songs in the Key of Life”.

Appreciating this music has been something of a surprise for me. I’ve always been a “rhythm guy”. Although I took piano and violin lessons when I was a kid, I bought a drum kit as a teenager, and that definitely took over (and now, the others are gone). I like complicated rhythms and instrumentals, but have never much cared for soaring melodies. Heck, I love primus like nobody’s business. Listen to Les Claypool sing - rappers have more melody than Claypool.

Stevie Wonder came up with the title of the album first, and then needed to write and create an album which lived up to the title. After three years of work, the result was a double album which is a definite “concept album”. It is wonderfully diverse and there are barely two songs that are similar stylistically, but it still flows. Where else would you find a fusion song with a lullaby on the same album?

The music strikes me as being complex, but that it came completely naturally to him. As if the complexity was not even something that he strived for, but was merely something that happened. He seemed to never sacrifice the “heart” in any of his songs.