THE CARR CENTER TRIBUTE TO STEVIE WONDER HAD SOME OVERKILL BUT WAS WORTH THE TWO-YEAR WAIT

Stevie Wonder

In 2017, the top brass at the Carr Center made a smart move hiring the accomplished Grammy-winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington as its artistic director. Since taking the job, Carrington has delivered world-class jazz programming to Detroit, which has included overdue tributes to some legendary Detroit musicians. One memorable tribute was for James Jamerson, Ron Carter, and Paul Chambers. Saturday night, Carrington was back at it again, treating a near-capacity audience at the Ford Theater inside the Detroit School of Arts to a superb homage to Motown icon Stevie Wonder. The two-hour concert was billed To Stevie, with Love…. Carrington's band—Dwight Adams, Nate Winn, Michael Mayo, Kevin Harris, Keyanna Hutchinson, Frank McComb, and Gregoire Maret—reworked some of Wonder's global classics such as "Superwoman," "Creepin'," "Superstition," and "I Just Called to Say I Love You." According to Oliver Ragsdale Jr, the Carr Center president, the concert was supposed to happen in 2020 but was postponed because of the Covid-19 lockdown. The performance came off as if Carrington's band were holed up together for two years doing nothing but rehearsing and thinking of inventive ways to perform Wonder's classics. The band opened with "They Won't Go When I Go." Soloing on that song, trumpeter Dwight Adams, a longtime member of Wonder's touring band, blew people out of their mezzanine seats. Adams embodies all that's great about Detroit jazz, so it wasn't surprising that he was brilliant the entire concert. The centerpiece was Gregoire Maret, the Grammy-winning harmonicist, who performed with an array of jazz, pop, and R&B luminaries like Herbie Hancock, Sting, and Prince. Surely, attendees will still be getting chill bumps days after the concert, thinking about the power and physicality Maret displayed soloing on "Isn't She Lovely" and "Superwoman." Although the concert was worth the two-year wait, there was some overkill, like the artist stationed at the corner of the stage painting a portrait of Wonder and reciting poetry between songs and the dancers who performed near the concert's end. Keyboardist Thomas McComb's over-the-top solo version of "A Ribbon in the Sky" and "Superstition" felt misplaced. The concert wouldn't have been any less terrific had Carrington opted to leave out the painting, dancing, and poetry.