Episode 01: The miraculous phrasing of Stevie Wonder

This first episode explores a single idea in the limitless musical trick bag of the great Stevie Wonder. Stevie’s vocal phrasing has influenced every generation of modern musicians since he first graced us with his musical presence. In this episode, we listen to a version of Fragile by Sting as sung by Stevie to highlight one aspect of his incredible vocal phrasing.

This journey takes us into the Gospel tradition, through Aretha, and leads to the holy land of how we might use some of the traits common to Gospel music in our own music, and make it our own, just as Stevie has done.

It includes some excerpts from a discussion about the topic with Lawrence Folvig, guitarist, producer and educator (and brother!).