Prom 48 – Stevie Wonder‘s Innervisions (1973)

Too High (arr. Rob Taggart)
Visions (arr. Callum Au)
Living for the City (arr. Jochen Neuffer)
Golden Lady (arr. Neuffer )
All in Love is Fair (arr. Tommy Laurence)
Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You) (Music of my Mind, arr. Neuffer)
They Won’t Go When I Go (arr. Tim Davies)a
Jesus Children of America (arr. Davies)
He’s Misstra Know-It-Allb
Creepin’ (Fulfillingness’ First Finale, arr. Taggart)c
Something Out of Blue (Where I’m Coming From, arr. Davies)c
Higher Ground (arr. Neuffer)
Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer (Where I’m Coming From, arr. Davies)d
Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing (arr. Tom Richards)d
Superstition (Talking Book)
If It’s Magic (Songs in the Key of Life)

Cory Henry (vocals / keyboards), aLaura Mvula, bLianne Le Havas, cVula Malinga, dSheléa (vocals), Vula’s Chorale, Jules Buckley Orchestra / Jules Buckley

Royal Albert Hall, London
Monday 21 August 2023

by Richard Whitehouse photos by Andy Paradise / BBC

From Nina Simone then Aretha Franklin to Stevie Wonder – these ‘tributes’ masterminded by Jules Buckley have become as much a Proms staple as were John Wilson’s stage-and-screen projects, with the 50th anniversary of Innervisions too notable an occasion to be passed over.

Now routinely hailed as one of the greatest albums, Innervisions was not always held in such esteem – being considered strong in atmosphere if short on hooks, which is rather to miss the point of its nine numbers merging into a seamless continuity broken only with the side-break of the LP. It duly elides between songs of love, self-awareness and social commentary with a mastery abetted by Wonder’s ingenuity as a musician and his skill as a producer; indeed, few albums, from what was to be the heyday for production, can rival its tangible space or depth.

Wonder’s distinctive if by no means inimitable voice makes his songs ideal for covering and, in Cory Henry, have a consummate keyboardist and eloquent singer able to encompass their conceptual and emotional range. Hence the dextrous organ intro’ then big-band stylings that underpinned the breezy ambivalence of Too High, or soulful communing of Visions with its textural enhancements from flute and electric guitar. It may have lacked the original’s urban ambience, but Living for the City emerged as an anthemic parable of racial injustice; then the amorous overtones of Golden Lady were enhanced by its shimmering slow shuffle.

An edgy vocal complemented the insistent groove of Higher Ground with its electronic and synthesized sounds which are no less intriguing today, while the Christian confessional that is Jesus Christ of America exuded piety but no undue emoting. The moodily reflective aura of All in Love is Fair benefitted from that deft backdrop of strings, as did the Latino-inflected jive of Don’t You Worry ’bout a Thing as here made for an irresistibly upbeat ending to the album itself. Typical of Wonder, though, that he should have concluded the original’s playing order with the snide political diatribe of He’s Misstra Know-It-All and which can still punch like a velveted fist when rendered, as here, with the allure of guest vocalist Lianne La Havas.

This begs the question as to whether such a classic album is best heard as an integral unity or interspersed, as was its second side, with other items – which latter course enabled a capacity house to sample each of those albums from Wonder’s ‘golden age’. Thus, the composite that is Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You), its interplay of easy grooves with fatalistic thoughts ably rendered by Henry, but the pensively resigned They Won’t Go When I Go felt coarsened and sentimentalized by histrionics from guest vocalist Laura Mvula. Not so the darkly insinuating Creepin’ with superb lead from backing vocalist Vula Malinga, who duetted with Henry on the burnished Something out of the Blue. A star of last year’s Aretha tribute, Sheléa handled the soaring pathos of Never Dreamed You’d Leave in Summer with aplomb, then all reassembled for a rousing send-off in the inevitable guise of Superstition.

It could have ended there, but Henry returned for a rendition of If It’s Magic in its original (and superior) version – confirmation that Stevie’s output will long remain a thing of Wonder.

For more on the 2023 BBC Proms, visit the festival’s website at the BBC. Click on the names for more information on Cory Henry, Laura Mvula, Lianne La Havas, Vula Malinga, Sheléa, Vula’s Chorale, Jules Buckley and Stevie Wonder himself