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List Price: $5.98 | | Label: Motown
Salesrank: 841000
Released: February 10, 1992 |
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| Media: Audio Cassette |
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The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie Track Listing:
1. Fingertips
2. Square
3. Soul Bongo
4. Manhattan at Six
5. Paulsby
6. Some Other Time
7. Wondering
8. Session Number 112
9. Bam
Editorial Review:
Japanese only paper sleeve SHM pressing. SHM-CDs (Super High Material CD) can be played on any audio player and deliver unbelievably high-quality sound. You won't believe it's the same CD! Universal.
The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie Reviews:
young wonder musicianship without the vocals... 
2004-11-29 - the young stevland morris of which motown chairman berry gordy renamed him little stevie wonder,guided the young child genius thru a series of unsucssesful singles that failed 2 chart nationally.singles such as 'mother thank you' which was originally called 'you made a vow'then was renamed 'thank you (for loving me all the way)/'i call it pretty music,but the old people call it the blues'/'little water boy'/'contract on love'/
motown's emphasis during the decade of the 1960s was singles.
(because concept albums during that time did not exist)albums back then were secondary-singles were first priority.the reason why motown chairman berry gordy wanted little stevie's first album 2 be a instrumental album was because the kid's voice was still maturing and still a little thin.his voice was nice but
gordy wanted his voice 2 mature with time,so gordy decided
2 release wonder's very first album with the main focus on the young kid's versatility as a talented musician that excels on a variety of instruments including bongos,harmonica,drums,organ,piano.with direction aided by wonder's older mentor clarence paul and the motown band.the
album opens with the original version of 'fingertips'which is more musically focused on it's instrumentation and sound.on this original version of the song,stevie is featured on the bongos which is odd...in my opinion he should have been on harmonica on this piece(of which he later did play on the more exciting live version.)'square'is the first track on this album of which stevie plays the harmonica.'soul bongo'of which was written by clarence paul and marvin gaye finds stevie on the bongos again but this time with a more spicier sound.'manhattan at six'is the premier drum piece on this album with little stevie blasting at full force with his drumming.you'd have 2 hear this piece 2 believe it.stevie's drumming is explosive!/'paulsby'(the song's name is a combination of stevie's mentor clarence paul's last name and motown's producer henry cosby)is the first song on the album where little stevie displays his soulful talent on the organ including harmonica-his organ playing is the main focus on this track.'some other time'is my favorite track on this album with stevie on the harmonica and is the album's longest track.'some other time'is also the album's most mellow track.'wondering'is an uptempo track with stevie again on organ but this time stevie's organ playing is at a much faster pace.stevie also co-wrote the song with clarence paul under one of his real surnames-judkins.'session number 112'(also co-written with paul)is a laid back 'mean' groove with little stevie on the piano-harmonica.'bam'(written by berry gordy)has little stevie on harmonica.the song also has jazz shadings of the legendary jazzman jimmy smith."the jazz soul of little stevie" is an album that concentrates on little stevie wonder's versatile musicianship without the vocals and is a precursor 2 later instrumental albums such as "eivets rednow"(1968) and wonder's later mature instrumental masterpiece "journey through the secret life of plants"(1979).
I Can't Believe this Is Out Of print! 
2003-09-23 - I'm lucky enough to have purchased this while it WAS in print and it's one of my favorites.It's a whole other side of
Wonder-playing jazz Ray Charles-inspirede 60's soul notably on
the full,instrumental version of "Fingertips" and other upbeat
numbers such as "Manhattan At 6","Paulsby" and "Bam".This is Stevie's first and only all inrtumental album and even if it was
recorded 40 years ago he should seriously consider making
another.
