October is beginning to feel like a master class in immortal pop music icons at the Air Canada Centre. After a two-night showcase from Madonna this past week and prior to a visit from Paul McCartney next Saturday, Stevie Wonder dropped in on Friday night to offer Torontonians a taste of a legend at work.
Arriving in support of his “Songs in the Key of Life” tour to celebrate his seminal 1976 album of the same name (he had an ACC date on the same tour back in November), Wonder didn’t come alone. Over the course of a marathon two-half, three and a half hour performance, Wonder had no fewer than 20 musicians and singers on hand to back him up. That meant a trumpet and saxophone section, a dueling harmonicas battle and the presence of many guest singers, including his daughter (and the inspiration for “Isn’t She Lovely”) Aisha Miller and the granddaughter of jazz icon Duke Ellington.
As is typical of Wonder’s shows, he opened with a few stories from across his 50-plus-year career and to contextualize the album-focused show upon being led out on stage. The 65-year-old worked his way through all 21 tracks from “Songs” before the encore, breaking only for a couple of covers and to allow for a mid-show intermission. While some of the album’s lesser known songs lost the crowd amid the sheer length of the set, the appreciative and nostalgic crowd of about 10,500 fans came alive for standout hits like “Village Ghetto Man”, “Joy Inside My Tears” and “Black Man”.
The most emotionally poignant moment of the show didn’t even come from one of Wonder’s own songs. He paid tribute to John Lennon, who would have turned 75 on Friday, with a rendition of “Imagine”, tearing up during the performance while wondering how Lennon would react to current political and social issues. Although the crowd responded warmly to every song Wonder served up, “Imagine” was the only one that drew an extended standing ovation.
The show took a bit of weird turn to begin the encore. As he has been doing throughout the tour, Wonder took on the alias of DJ Tick Tick Boom while running through a mixed sampling of past and present pop hits. It didn’t fit particularly well with the tone of the rest of the show and featured too much of Wonder/DJ urging fans to make more noise, but the segment did allow Wonder to show some love for emerging local R&B star The Weeknd by playing his hit track, “Can’t Feel My Face”.
Another local touch from Wonder came when he invited Canada AM television personality Marci Ien, whom he had met as part of an earlier interview, up to join him at the piano ahead of “Higher Ground”. This served to kick off the second portion of the encore, which wrapped things up on a high thanks to a string of classic hits that also included “Don’t You Worry ‘bout a Thing” and, of course, “Superstition”. The show’s final flourish got everyone up and dancing, putting an energetic bow on an evening that was high on quantity and quality.
