Recap: Don Braden Quartet Performs Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire 4/26/24

April 28, 2024

2–4 minutes

Photos: Rudy Lu

It is a time honored tradition in jazz to play songs from the Great American Songbook. Arguably as we are now firmly in the 21st century, the Great American Songbook, this songbook has been expanded to many of the great songs that graced the radiowaves and turntables of the 60s and 70s. Don Braden has devoted part of his long career as a jazz musician, band leader and educator to the rearranging and reinterpreting the music of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire (EWF),

With 24 recording projects as leader, the latest two (Earth, Wind & Wonder + Earth, Wind +Wonder II) have been devoted to this music. His work does not cover this music note for note instrumentally as a “cover band” would, but arranges this music in unexpected ways that make sense and swing that element that makes jazz jazz.

Opening with EWF’s “Can’t Hide Love”, you can tell this band meant serious business. The opening theme swung like crazy but was immediately recognizable. Don’s stellar full tenor took the composition to other spaces. The inspired piano of Piano of Miki Hiyama helped along with the journey mightily as her fingers and arms danced across the piano deftly. Chris Berger’s bass walked along and kept pace Jeremy Warren actively locked in,

That Stevie Wonder Reggae hit from the 1980 album “Hotter than July” , “Master Blaster(Jammin)” was “dereggaeized’ and made to swing , with Hiyama making interesting minor fills and constant rhythm changes by the entire band that made the tune more intricate.

Don then took up his concert flute to play the Michael Jackson hit penned by Stevie Wonder, “I Can’t Help It” from the breakthrough album “Off the Wall’. With a gentle piano beginning and a Latin rhythm this version was a lot more organic than the Michael Jackson version which featured the glossy production of Quincy Jones.

Two originals penned by Braden inspired by this music were “Elements’ ‘ , a musical interpretation of the alchemist elements Earth, Wind, Fire and Water that were first stated and explained separately by Braden and then combined into the composition, in tribute to EWF. The other was by combining two of Wonder’s jazzier compositions “Too High” and “Contusion” into the hybrid “Confusion” which brought the elements of an airy flying feel to a driving fusion beat.

Wonder’s “Bird of Beauty” was interpreted as a waltz rather than a samba. Making the melody more obvious.

Don had a second flute with him, an alto flute with a fuller tone and resonance than the concert flute. It suited the descriptively titled “In My Dreams”, a tune that seems to weightlessly ride waves of consciousness.

The closest was EWF’s, “That’s the Way of the World ”, the unforgettable theme song for a long forgotten movie that ruled the airwaves in 1975.

Don Braden is on Arcadia Records (arcadiarecords.com) and his music is available on all streaming platforms and Bandcamp.

This concert was a special spring concert for A Place For Jazz. The fall concert season starts on 9/6 and ends 11/1 and features a broad overview of the music known as jazz. See APFJ.org for details.