The story of Stevie Wonder, Bob Margouleff, Malcolm Cecil and Tonto

Think carefully ! I bet that most of the Stevie Wonder’s songs you prefer are almost all from these four albums:

• Music of My Mind (1972)
• Talking Book (1972)
• Innervisions (1973)
• Fulfillingness’ First Finale (1974)

Well, Songs in the Key of Life is not bad either (understatement).

There might be a reason for this. Alongside Stevie, they were co produced and recorded by two virtually unknown British guys. Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil, using their amazing Tonto synthesiser, the Colossus of electronic music, worked night and day, four years in a row, to craft the idiosyncratic sound of Stevie Wonder, earning him four Grammies. When I say night and day, I mean literally anytime of the day as Stevie, living on multiple time zones, and being blind lives in own time zone. I bet you never heard their names, but the three of them went on to recording 240 songs together, most of them never released. Think of those gritty and funky synths, Stevie’s trademark really, this is Tonto, the mother of all synthesizers. So big, it can…. it must be played by two or three people at simultaneously. Think of the bridge of Star Trek’s Enterprise.

History was not very kind with Bob and Cecil as they were seldom, or more exactly almost never credited properly for their ground breaking work. But, better late than never, now you know.

Please feel free to comment and add information.

JAZZINHO