Chuck Perrin

Last week’s Stevie Wonder Tribute at dizzy’s reignited my appreciation for the astonishing body of creative music this master sound shaper has given us over the years. The performance by an all star group — led by guitarist Peter Sprague and featuring Geoffrey Keezer, Leonard Patton, Gillian Margot, Justin Grinnell, and Duncan Moore — drove me to revisit my collection of all of Stevie’s albums and I’ve been listening nonstop every day since to the dazzling display inventive grooves and arrangements that came from the mind of this blind powerhouse. His body of original work is undoubtedly the absolute zenith of jazz soul popular music.
One song in particular “Do I Do” — performed by the group last week and highlighted by Justin Grinnell‘s slamming bass work and Duncan Moore‘s in the pocket drumming — has seriously pushed me over the sonic edge. I can’t get it out of my mind and I’ve been binge listening to it almost incessantly since then.
All this has got me thinking . . .
This is why we go see music performed live — to inspire us, to take us away from the mundane day to day, and instead set fire to our inner sense of the glorious rhythms of life. Where would we be without the music makers who dedicate themselves to stoking the flames and continue to bring it our way?