"Isn't She Lovely" is a song by Stevie Wonder from his 1976 album, Songs in the Key of Life. The lyrics celebrate the birth of his daughter, Aisha Morris. Wonder collaborated on the song with Harlem songwriter and studio owner Burnetta "Bunny" Jones.
The song opens side 3 of Songs in the Key of Life, and starts with a baby's first cry recorded during an actual childbirth. A recording of Wonder bathing Aisha as an older toddler is brought into the final section of the song, mixed with Wonder's extended chromatic harmonica solo. All of the instruments heard in the song are played by Wonder, except for some keyboard parts played by Greg Phillinganes. During the recording process, bassist Nathan Watts laid down a bass guitar line to serve as a guide track for Wonder, but Wonder eventually replaced this with his own keyboard bass performance.
The more-than-six-minute song was not released as a single, as Wonder was unwilling to shorten the song to fit the 7", 45 rpm format. Even without a single release, the song received so much airplay that it reached number 23 on the Adult Contemporary chart in January 1977. Since then, the song has become a jazz and pop standard, covered by many artists.
Wonder performed the song live for Queen Elizabeth II at her Diamond Jubilee Concert on June 4, 2012, with lyrics modified to refer to the Queen.
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Summer school is officially in session. So I’m handing out grades for five different takes on Prince’s “I Feel For You” from 1979-1984.
Nate Marsh graduated from Berklee in 2012 and just finished his Masters of Music at the University of Colorado. He’s published his thesis, “The Influence of Jazz on R&B Electric Bassists of the 1960s and 1970s”, which is publicly available.
So cool. Here’s Stevie Wonder and band performing Chick Corea’s “Spain”. Nathan Watts is holding down the low end, in his usual awesome way. Part 2 of the video has a tasty solo from Watts. This clip comes from the DVD, filmed at the O2 Arena in London in 2008. Part 1: Part 2:
A lot can be said about someone who has won an award that has only been given out twice, especially when the other winner was Jaco Pastorius. Nathan Watts, who has played in Stevie Wonder’s rhythm section for the last 36 years and has served as Stevie’s musical director for the last twelve, was awarded the International Bassist Award at...
