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The hardest thing for Andrew Craig was choosing. “That alone caused sleepless nights,” he admits.

The Canadian musician and host of CBC Radio’s Canada Live is referring to the job of putting together a tribute to R&B legend Stevie Wonder. Featured as part of the Canwest Cabaret series happening at the Young Centre October 29th through November 1st, Craig says “ultimately taking on the catalogue of someone as prolific as Stevie Wonder begins with the decision about what approach to take.”
That approach has been rendered with loving care, though Craig says he’s sure his choices –that is, what he chose to leave off –will disappoint more than a few, even as Wonder’s soulful, uplifting sounds delight many more.

Craig, who is a Resident Artist of the Young Centre, has a sizeable catalogue of musical accomplishments. As well as being the host of the nightly Canada Live program on CBC Radio Two, he is also the man behind the Gospel Christmas Project, a lively, annual holiday show (happening December 10th at the Young Centre). The musician, who is also a multi-instrumentalist and has worked in the capacities of composer, arranger, producer, and director, has also collaborated in projects from the worlds of theatre, film, television and dance. The cabaret isn’t the first time he’s been asked to put together a show based around the work of a great composer, either; Craig worked as musical director for high-profile tributes to Canadian jazz legend Oscar Peterson and music super-producer Quincy Jones.

The opportunity to pay tribute to Stevie Wonder came about through a combination of timing and creative brainstorming. In late summer, Craig was approached by the Young Centre’s Artistic Director Albert Schultz about doing a show as part of the second annual cabaret festival. The songbook format, which pays tribute to various artists and their musical canons, was a feature of last year’s inaugural series, and was met with much acclaim and popularity. Amidst a brainstorming session, Wonder’s name came up as a possible artist to include in this year’s songbook concerts. Craig, who had directed the Duke Ellington Songbook as part of last year’s cabaret festival, received an email from Schultz asking if he’d be interested in putting a program together based around Wonder’s music.

“I had the same reaction I often have with big projects,” he states matter-of-factly, “a mix of delight and terror, simultaneously.”

Why terror? “Terror only in that the time parameters are almost never enough,” he explains. “I envision in my mind, that to truly do justice to Stevie, you want a six month lead time. You want to be able to revel in it and really carefully craft your approach.” Craig didn’t get six months; it was more like six weeks, or less. “The decision-making process alone around the show was absolutely gut-wrenching.”

Wonder, who was a child star at Barry Gordy’s Motown records, went on to release a stellar collection of albums from the 1960s all the way up to the 2000s, and has won the greatest number of Grammys (22) of any male solo performer in history. Earlier this year he played at the Inauguration of President Obama as well as the memorial tribute to Michael Jackson. With more than thirty American top ten hits, a Lifetime Achievement Grammy, an Oscar, induction into the Rock and Roll and Songwriters’ Halls of Fame, and many more accolades, Wonder continues to record, tour, and collaborate with a wide variety of artists from every genre of music.

Craig’s first memory of experiencing Wonder’s music was as a child growing up in Scarborough, Ontario. His mother owned a copy of “For Once In My Life.” “I wanted her to play it over and over,” he recalls. The first Wonder album where Craig really got into Wonder and his musicianship was the 1974 masterpiece, Fulfillingness First Finale, which featured “"Boogie on Reggae Woman” and “They Won’t Go When I Go” among other beloved tunes. “I got very deeply into that record,” he says, noting that although he had heard the famous Innervisions before and went on to buy the subsequent Songs In The Key Of Life, it was Finale that drew him back, time and again. “I think that was the first record I wore out.” 

The program will see a number of diverse singers tackling Wonder’s works, including some who may not immediately be perceived as suited, in either style or sound, to performing funky, soulful tunes like “Superstition,” “Higher Ground” or “As.” Craig says the choice of artists appearing was a mix of both his and Schultz’s input in shaping the program to reflect the cabaret festival’s experimental, edgy side, while mixing it with a populist appeal.

“Albert went to lengths to put together a company of artists for this cabaret festival,” Craig explains, “and the initial idea was that all of the performers and songbooks would be done by a company of artists. While I love that approach, it felt for me personally a little too restricting. I say that only because of my particular style of producing. I have to hear it in my head first. I’m usually hearing it as songs paired with voices, hearing particular combinations paired with songs and attributes songwriters and singers have.”

Using an appropriate metaphor, considering that Schultz is also the Artistic Director of Soulpepper Theatre Company, Craig says he likened being given a stable of artists to “directing a play, but the cast is given to you.” Craig was able to bring in two artists, Daniel Galessiere and Mike Ferfolia, who aren’t part of the Centre proper, but whose talents he felt would complement the music and vibe of the show. “You want to be engaged,” he explains, “so I brought them in for specific reasons.” In their voices, Craig says, “you can easily detect Stevie’s influence.” He’s quick to add that he wasn’t aiming for the concert to become a karaoke event. “I didn’t want people to come in trying to be him,” he says, “that would also be an artistic error. What they will hopefully do is retain their own vocal and personal character while paying tribute to the person who so clearly influenced their style.”

The one artist who Craig says “falls outside the expected parameters” for the Stevie Wonder Songbook is Toronto-based jazz vocalist Elizabeth Shepherd. “She has a really funky sensibility to her jazz,” Craig explains, “and she also thinks Stevie is a god!” Her inclusion also allowed Craig to, as he puts it, “make the artistic point that Stevie’s music, aside from him as the principle performer, withstands a variety of treatments from a variety of artists. There are countless reinterpretations in many different genres, which speaks to the quality of the songwriting itself. So it’s not really that much of a leap for her to come in and sing these tunes, and put her individual spin on the renditions.”

That “individual spin” doesn’t mean Wonder’s work will be rendered unrecognizable, however. He cites the work of musician Herbie Hancock as a reference for how reinterpretation can change the nature and perception of its original source. “The benefit of Herbie having done that is that his (version) doesn’t bear comparison to the original. It’s so distinct as a unique artistic expression. That’s one way to go.”

Much as he respects that some may enjoy such radical reinterpretation “on an intellectual level,” Craig is also understands the importance –and value –of setting a program that appeals to a wider public. “People want to hear those opening clavinet notes in “Superstition” the way Stevie played them,” he says, “or harmonica like he played it. Our associations are not with words but with his arrangements, and his original recordings of them. We have such a strong connection to those (sounds), so my approach has become to look at them as the classics they are.”

Choosing among those classics was still a big challenge. “You can’t do them all,” Craig admits with a little laugh. “You’ll hear me issue a disclaimer up front: there will be one, if not several songs, where you are going to say, ‘Why didn’t they do that?’ I’ll tell you now, I’m not entering any discussions about it whatsoever! You may not hear your favourites because there are simply so many. Stevie himself plays about three hours in his live shows, and even he doesn’t get through them all, so there’s no way we’re going to do it in 75 minutes!”