Stevie Wonder: Spain

Last night I was scouring the archives of YouTube for a suitable tune for today’s Tasty Licks Tuesday selection. While looking for and listening to various Pat Metheny cuts, Stevie Wonder’s version of Chick Corea’s “Spain” was suggested and I clicked on it.

From his 2009 DVD “Live at Last,” Stevie and company do a rousing version of this classic Corea composition. The song begins with Victoria Theodore on keyboards with a sound of Chick Corea’s Fender Rhodes piano. She is then joined by Stevie Wonder on chromatic harmonica. It really is a nice mix.

Then the band joins into the mix and one can immediately tell that to play in Stevie Wonder’s band you have to be a stellar musician. Then one by one, in this nearly 12 minute live performance from London, each member of the band takes a verse for a solo. The band includes the following members:

• Ryan Kilgore, tenor saxophone
• Errol Cooney, guitar
• Roman Johnson, keyboards – who plays like he’s playing an old monophonic synth using the pitch bend wheel.
• Dwight Adams, trumpet
• Kyle Bolden, guitar
• Munyungo Jackson, timbales
• Victoria Theodore, keyboards
• Nathan Watts, bass
• Fausto Cuevas, congas
• Stevie Wonder, acoustic piano
• Stanley Randolph, drums

Then the band finishes out this number. What a great version of this song.