Dear Friends of Funk and Jazz,
Stevie Wonder’s Jungle Fever is spinning on the turntable and it’s working magic over here — stirring up the imagination, upping the vibe, accompanying the sounds of summer outside the window. On the tune “Fun Day,” the last chorus leads to the vamp out and Stevie has one final thing to say, “let me solo, let me solo, let me solo” and then the background vocals answer “SOLO!” What a classic moment and yeah, Stevie by all means start your solo!
Stevie’s been one of my main musical inspirations since I was young and it’s his groove, his jazz sense of harmony infused into pop, that touches me so deeply. His tunes are bulletproof and can take on many different interpretations and still retain the vibe. We like taking his music and filtering it through our jazz and Brazilian sensibilities.
This week on Thursday evening we’re gearing up for Episode 7 — Live(ish) From SpragueLand playing the music of Stevie Wonder. We’ve got Rebecca Jade and Leonard Patton on vocals, Tripp Sprague on sax and flute, Mack Leighton on bass, Duncan Moore on drums, and me on guitar. We’re playing Stevie classics that I’ve arranged and for this show the ink is barely dry on 2 new ones that I’m looking forward to hearing the musos bring to life.
50% of the proceeds from this livestream concert will be donated to Black Lives Matter.
Price of admission? Actually the concert is free but we will have a “virtual tip jar” complete with Tripp’s PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle info for you to donate whatever you feel good about. Snail mail works good too. We’d love for this to work.
Paypal: tripp@trippsprague.com
Venmo: @Tripp-Sprague
Zelle: peter@petersprague.com
mail checks via snail mail to: Peter Sprague
311 East Glaucus St.
Encinitas, CA 92024
Here’s the link for the concert: https://youtu.be/9ACqddBJLkI
We’re looking forward to spinning in the sound of Wonder!
best, Peter