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| Stevie Wonder performs at the White House in Washington on Feb. 25, 2009. Wonder has announced an 18-date tour celebrating 50 years of his 1976 album “Songs in the Key of Life.” (Pete Souza/Official White House Photo) |
Fifty years after releasing the sprawling album that gave him his third Grammy Award for album of the year, Wonder will perform it in its entirety during an 18-date tour of Europe and the United States this fall.
The "Songs in the Key of Life Performances — 50th Anniversary Tour" opens Oct. 13 in Birmingham, England, and runs through Dec. 19 at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California. The U.S. portion begins Nov. 19 at Madison Square Garden in New York, followed by Chicago, Washington, D.C., two nights in Detroit and the California finale.
Few albums are better suited to the treatment.
Released in 1976, "Songs in the Key of Life" stretched across two LPs and an additional four-song EP, with Wonder moving through love songs, childhood memories, social criticism, spirituality, jazz, funk and celebrations of Black history and achievement.
"I Wish" looked back at childhood. "Sir Duke" saluted Duke Ellington and the Black musical tradition that preceded Wonder. "Isn't She Lovely" celebrated the birth of his daughter Aisha. Elsewhere, songs including "Village Ghetto Land," "Black Man" and "Pastime Paradise" confronted inequality, history and the world Wonder saw around him.
The scale of the record was matched by its reception.
"Songs in the Key of Life" won album of the year at the 1977 Grammy Awards, giving Wonder his third victory in the category following "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale." He also won producer of the year, non-classical, at the same ceremony.
The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2005.
Its account of the sessions describes a process that sometimes stretched to 48 hours at a time and notes contributions from musicians including Nathan Watts, Raymond Pounds, Greg Phillinganes, Ben Bridges, Mike Sembello and Herbie Hancock.
The album's reach also extended far beyond the generation that bought it in 1976.
"Pastime Paradise" became part of the foundation for Coolio's 1995 smash "Gangsta's Paradise," while Wonder's melodies, arrangements and production have continued to echo through R&B, hip-hop and pop. That makes the anniversary particularly relevant for listeners who may have first encountered pieces of "Songs in the Key of Life" through records made decades later.
Wonder has revisited the album onstage before. He mounted a North American "Songs in the Key of Life" performance tour beginning in 2014, later extending the run into 2015.
The difference now is the calendar.
The music Wonder took on the road a decade ago was already part of the canon. Fifty years after its release, "Songs in the Key of Life" has had another decade to travel through generations, genres and other artists' records.
This fall, Wonder is going back to the source.
"I Wish" looked back at childhood. "Sir Duke" saluted Duke Ellington and the Black musical tradition that preceded Wonder. "Isn't She Lovely" celebrated the birth of his daughter Aisha. Elsewhere, songs including "Village Ghetto Land," "Black Man" and "Pastime Paradise" confronted inequality, history and the world Wonder saw around him.
The scale of the record was matched by its reception.
"Songs in the Key of Life" won album of the year at the 1977 Grammy Awards, giving Wonder his third victory in the category following "Innervisions" and "Fulfillingness' First Finale." He also won producer of the year, non-classical, at the same ceremony.
The Library of Congress added the album to the National Recording Registry in 2005.
Its account of the sessions describes a process that sometimes stretched to 48 hours at a time and notes contributions from musicians including Nathan Watts, Raymond Pounds, Greg Phillinganes, Ben Bridges, Mike Sembello and Herbie Hancock.
The album's reach also extended far beyond the generation that bought it in 1976.
"Pastime Paradise" became part of the foundation for Coolio's 1995 smash "Gangsta's Paradise," while Wonder's melodies, arrangements and production have continued to echo through R&B, hip-hop and pop. That makes the anniversary particularly relevant for listeners who may have first encountered pieces of "Songs in the Key of Life" through records made decades later.
Wonder has revisited the album onstage before. He mounted a North American "Songs in the Key of Life" performance tour beginning in 2014, later extending the run into 2015.
The difference now is the calendar.
The music Wonder took on the road a decade ago was already part of the canon. Fifty years after its release, "Songs in the Key of Life" has had another decade to travel through generations, genres and other artists' records.
This fall, Wonder is going back to the source.
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