A

span class="caption" style="width: 398px;">AP/Donald TraillLooking at an early video of Steveland Morris, or, as he was known back in those days, Little Stevie Wonder, one indeed finds it hard not to wonder.

The pre-teen boy looks ecstatic as he bangs the bongo to one of his earliest hits, “Fingertips Part 2”, and later switched to the harmonica, which proceeded to produce a plethora of tunes from the mellow to the shrill.

The little bundle of energy featured in the video, which on YouTube is said to have originated in 1962, hardly stops smiling as he encourages the audience to share the energy with repeated lines of “Everybody say yee-aah”. It was probably difficult not to succumb to the boy’s command.

Wonder, who dropped the “Little” in his stage name at 14, now mostly plays the keyboard, although he told The Jakarta Post and Kompas in a recent phone interview that he sometimes plays the drums as well as other instruments.

“I hope that when I get to Indonesia I can get some of the traditional instruments to take back with me, to put in my album,” he said of his visit to perform at Java Jazz, which is slated to run from March 2 to 4.

It has been decades since his last show in Indonesia and the sixty-something Wonder said he was excited.

And it is very likely that Indonesian fans are excited about him. Wonder has charmed the music world during his long career with hits such as “You are the Sunshine of My Life”, “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and “Lately”.

He has won over 20 Grammy awards and has been bestowed with various honors, such as France’s Commander of the National Order of Arts and Letters. He is considered to have influenced a number of fellow entertainers ranging from the late King of Pop Michael Jackson to teen heartthrob Justin Bieber.

Billboard magazine put Wonder at number five on its list of Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists in 2008. In a nutshell, he is easily a living musical legend.

Wonder was discovered early, as the YouTube video suggests, entering the world of iconic Motown Records when he was 10 years old and having “Fingertips Part 2” as his first hit released a year later.

The record label is known for releasing the music of stars such as The Temptations, the Jackson 5 and Marvin Gaye.

According to the Motown historical museum website, the record label’s founder, Berry Gordy, was responsible for Wonder’s stage name, proclaiming the self-taught boy “a wonder” after seeing the latter’s mastery of various instruments.

Wonder was also warmly regarded as “the lovably mischievous lad” who liked to play pranks.

At the age of 21, he asked for complete artistic freedom before re-signing with the record label and, partly due to his success in gaining that freedom, wrote a number of fresh-sounding hits.

Releases include Up-Tight (Everything’s Alright) in 1966, Jungle Fever in 1991 and Songs in the Key of Life in 2000. In 2009, he released a video of his concert in London the previous year, titled Live At Last — A Wonder Summer’s Night.

According to Wonder, his penchant for music is due to his love for the art rather than a particular upbringing.

“For the most part, all my life I have been a music lover and I think the great thing about my life with music is that, to get started at music at a very young age. Someone who started, when I was 10 years old, in Motown is amazing because I have constantly loved music,” he said.

And although Wonder practically spent his teenage years as a praised musician, he said his days as a youth were far from the crazy, rock-and-roll lifestyle experienced by several other young artists.

“When I was a teenager my life was very structured, very strict. I had a chaperone, I had my teacher with me … I am very happy that I never had a crazy life as a little boy,” he recalled.

Named a UN Messenger of Peace in 2009, Wonder is also known as an activist for various causes such as promoting peace and ending world hunger and racial equality.

He was notably passionate in making the birthday of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr an official holiday before President Ronald Reagan eventually signed the King Holiday Bill into law in 1983. Wonder’s stance is manifested in his song “Happy Birthday” with lines like, “I just never understood how a man who died for good could not have a day that would be set aside for his recognition.”

“The music that I have written in the past is a statement. From that I wrote — which ultimately has a lot to do with the King holiday. I am very happy about that because ultimately the King holiday became a reality so I think music throughout time is always helping to bring about change,” Wonder said.

He regards his inability to see as a gift that gives him a chance to encourage others.

“I think that as much as I love to see, I think it was God’s purpose for me to be blind. Me being blind gave me the blessing that I would be able to see and to encourage those who have similar disabilities. And so I have been able to use the gift that I have been given to encourage those who may be blind, deaf, paraplegic or quadriplegic or whatever,” he said.  

The father and grandfather is apparently just as enthusiastic as his younger self, both on the subject of music and social issues these days.

“A very interesting thing is happening in the world today. I think you have young people who want to see the world united. To stand for freedom of expression, they want to see peace in the world, they want to see people who are in power commit themselves to making peace throughout the world. They want the leaders to stop talking about it and to be about it,” Wonder said.

And the appearance of new technology serves only to increase his passion for various kinds of music.

“I think that music is very accessible in different ways. You have, using for instance computers, you are able to use Garage Band, play, keep the instruments, go online and play with other musicians in other parts of the world and send the music to be heard but I think the other thing is instruments real live instruments are being used a bit more … you have a combination of live instruments, you may have a mixer, you have a rapper, you might have a singer … There’s a mixture of things happening and that to me is very exciting.”

The voice-only interview prevented him from flashing his enthusiastic and slightly mischievous smile, but hearing the passion in his words made it easy to picture that smile, almost unchanged throughout the years.