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The Night Stevie Wonder met the Jazz Mafia by Adam Theis 09.27.09

As I’m writing this, the day after Stevie Wonder showed up at my band’s gig I’m still on a musical high that feels like it will last a lifetime – it was the best night of my life. Last night was magical in so many ways even before Stevie showed up, so as you can imagine, everyone lost it when he got up to sing with us!

It’s getting kinda hard to retell the story because I start getting a bit emotional so I figured I should write down my recollections of what happened so people can share the joy that one human being brought to a whole community in a little jazz club in the Mission on September 26th, 2009.

So, this all happened at a new spot in San Francisco called CODA Jazz and Supper Club which is only 2 months old. Coda is the newest home of our 8 year long series “Jazz Mafia Tuesdays” and also where we host the party that happened last night when Stevie showed up called “Last Saturdays Remix Live” with Supertaster. As the night approached there was a lot of magic around the excitement of our good friend and Jazz Mafia supporter Davin (Showy Mcshow) celebrating his 30th Birthday – It’s kind of an annual thing that we do with him. There were a TON of his friends there which really helped to get the vibe going. Supertaster, who is kind of the black sheep of the Jazz Mafia, got a rare opportunity to perform in front of a full house of beautiful music loving party people on a weekend which was magic in itself since we usually play the off-nights. In addition to the amazing vocals of Karyn Paige and Joe Bagale we were joined by Dublin and Seneca on the mic for some amazing freestyles. I’m still laughing at the “Love Battle” where Dublin battled Seneca using compliments instead of put-downs, it was too many laughs and it was kinda gay! Seneca was so uncomfortable!

As Supertaster got ready to take the stage for our first set Chris Pastena, who is one of the owners, let us know that Stevie Wonder had come by the club but for some reason didn’t come in, maybe because it was too crowded (it was filled to capacity) or maybe because he was hungry but the kitchen was closed….Anyway we were BUMMED that we missed an opportunity to see and maybe play music for one of our musical GODS. We soon got over it and had an amazing time playing for our friends and family who were possibly the craziest audience we’ve had in SF in a long time. After the break as we were getting into the second set someone came up and whispered to me “Stevie Wonder is here, he is coming in the club!”. The rest of the band soon found out and we were all looking at each other like “WTF?”

As we continued our set of soul, hip-hop beats, jazz breaks and the like we were encountered with the question of “What do you do when Stevie Wonder walks into the small club you are playing?”. Supertaster is probably the most versatile band I’ve ever played with so the answer to that question could be one of hundreds of directions. I’m not sure how we decided but the way it went down felt very natural so I’m happy about it. I wanted to make sure to feature Karyn and Joe on vocals since Dublin and Seneca had gotten their turn on the mic. We did a Karyn and Joe original which was very inspired of course. After that it was feeling like we had to wind things up soon because it was 1:30am. Occasionally I would look back to see if Stevie was still there and much to my surprise he was not there with a giant entourage and he seemed to be just bobbing his head to the music. I also noticed him clapping and looking enthusiastic when I gave some mentions of our scene and what we’ve been building in SF over the past decade, felt good to know he was listening to that.

We ended up playing a Stevie song “You haven’t Done Nothing” which Bagale and Mcgee sang and I dedicated to the Birthday boy Davin. I didn’t want to even mention Stevie on the mic because sometimes celebrities don’t seem to dig that right? It was clear that after that song things were not meant to end yet so we played John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” as an encore. Joe absolutely SLAYS that song and it was a fun way to end the night in style. As the song neared the last section I suddenly feared for my life as a large horde of people rushed the stage with cameras in hand. As I looked up there was Stevie Wonder being led by his body guard Eric!

When Stevie Wonder got on stage at Coda he acknowledged the band and was very polite and gracious. Stevie got a mic and did a short “sermon” about how beautiful this music is – talked about the connection between John Lennon and Donny Hathaway, and how those songs moved him when he first heard them. I think Joe’s version of that song really did inspire Stevie to get up on stage with us – I feel like if we woulda played a funk jam instead, it would’ve probably not happened the same at all. Anyway, as the song wound down and Joe gave 110% we could tell Stevie wanted to SING too – he was inspired. So we chatted with him for 5 seconds and decided on the tune “All Day Sucker” which is a tune we used to play a lot in Supertaster and also with Realistic Orchestra for the annual Stevie Wonder Birthday Tribute that we put on. I have to say that when he started singing the song it was beyond goosebumps…the crowd was going completely insane yet being very respectful, the band was playing better than ever and we honestly had no idea that Stevie would even want to sing with us. He did what I felt like was my favorite version of that song ever. As the tune was nearing a stopping point a leaned over to Bagale and suggested testing the water by playing the riff from “Can’t Help it”, the hit song he wrote for Michael Jackson. Joe gave me a huge smile and head nod.

It was a little weird when I merged into the bass line from Can’t Help It, Stevie was still singing All Day, and he kinda froze for a second to get his bearings – I was kinda freaked out because I felt like “I just cut off Stevie Wonder!!” Crap!!” But it took him literally 2 seconds and BAM! one of my favorite songs EVER came to life on stage live as Stevie sang those first few notes of a song that haunts many of us as one of Michael’s most beautiful performances. Seriously, when he started singing just the shouts from the band alone were like the rumble of a crowd of a thousand. He broke it down and said a little bit about MJ and how special the song is to him – He also mentioned that he wrote the tune in San Francisco, Sausalito to be exact.

Even though Stevie sings the tune in a much lower key than the MJ version we do, you wouldn’t have known he was struggling – He did vocal acrobatics that I’ve never heard anyone do, even Stevie Wonder! The tunes with him went off as if we’d rehearsed them with him – many people asked me if we knew he was coming; a definite NEGATORY on that one.

I have to also give the band props – Looking over at them during these tunes they held it DOWN, calm cool and collected but with hot FIRE – I felt like I was playing with some seasoned professionals who were BRINGING IT. As the song wound down Stevie thanked everybody talked a little more and basically brought a cloud of peace to the North end of San Francisco’s Mission District that will probably last for a long time.

It was well after 2am but Mr. Wonder stuck around and spent time with all of the band, taking pictures, listening to us talk about the Jazz Mafia and being an all around amazing person. I was lucky enough to hand him the new Brass, Bows & Beats CD of my Symphony and he seemed very interested when I told him about it. As our time together wound down, has asked us to huddle around him and imparted some of the most beautiful and inspiring information a human could ever communicate – true Stevie, true story, that just HAPPENED.

Out of ALL the musicians alive on this planet Stevie Wonder is THE musician I’ve wanted to meet the most for quite some time now. This was indeed a dream come true because not only we get to meet him but we got to share some beautiful music and play for him as well as the highest honor, getting to make music with one of the most amazing musicians and human beings ever.

Other highlights include Stevie singing a clip of his “Happy Birthday” to the B-day Boy Davin who was standing right on front of him. The look on D’s face!!!!!
Waking up and realizing it wasn’t a dream was awesome.
getting calls and texts all night from fellow music lovers.

Another observation that really impressed me is how the whole time Stevie Wonder was there it never felt like some paparazzi b.s. that seems to be everywhere famous people are. People were super polite and gave Stevie the space he most likely needed in a cramped club like that. Thanks to everyone who was there for making it a memorable night and helping us get the vibe just right so that someone like Stevie Wonder felt like that was where he had to be for his Saturday night.