Stevie’s Wonders | arr. by 19 yr. old Michael Miller | BOBBY SHEW

[@NagyZsuzsanna58]

Wonderful, snappy, passionate. Magical musical indulgence. Genius. Pure excellent talent. There will never be anyone else Michael.

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

🎶🤗🎶

[@farhanarahman6743]

Thank you Michael that was beautiful and stupendous and phenomenal ❤Farhana RAHMAN

[@aleasb]

So beautiful and powerful, this is a true love for the trumpet and music! Thank you ☺️

[@Renate-eg4dk]

Wow, that's great❣️ So beautiful 😊 I really enjoy every second of it 🎶🎺🎵🥁🎶🎺🎵... 🫠 ... I melt away 😊

[@Digrient]

I’m a sucker for melancholy flügelhorn playing to begin with, and this arrangement is so gorgeous, the entire suite/medley also. At 19, what an achievement!

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

🎺😊🎺

[@farhanarahman6743]

MICHAEL YOU ARE SO AMAZING TALENTED 👏

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

Well, thank you - I’m just glad you enjoy the music!

[@jasonburger3533]

Your arrangement is splendid, especially for a 19-year-old who was, by golly, still a teen-ager. From what I heard in this musical upload, it sounds like the work of a young prodigy. The flugelhorn and the trumpet are very emotionally expressive musical instruments. Did Stevie Wonder ever get a copy of this fabulous musical arrangement? When you had the UCLA concert, was it in Pauley Pavilion? Is there any video of this arrangement with Bobby Shew at any time over the years? This is a surprise that is wonderful. You must have had a strong interest in music from an early age. I would not be surprised if there are others in your family who share the interests in music. From my calculations, this arrangement might have been in the mid-1970s. It sounds very contemporary for a big band arrangement. I have to say that before popular music veered toward rock and roll during the 1950s, that big band music was very popular, with a lot of performers, such as Ray Anthony, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Kay Kyser, Margaret Whiting, Helen O'Connell, Jo Stafford, and Kay Starr among the early singers of that style of music. There later came Ray Conniff, Nelson Riddle, Percy Faith, Tommy Dorsey, and, much later, younger singers who emulated those styles, such as Harry Connick Jr., Michael Feinstein, and, more recently, Michael Buble and Peter Cincotti, among others. There was a definite comparison, especially with Harry Connick Jr., of sounding similar to a young Frank Sinatra. Big band music still exists with all the newer musical genres that have appeared in recent years. There is not much comparable to big band music. A longtime talk radio host on local AM radio in Los Angeles and, at times, nationally syndicated, had the 12:00 midnight to 5:00 a.m. shift from 1967 through 1994. His name was Ray Briem. He featured music nights with a lot of the big band singers and leaders, in studio as guests in the wee small hours of the morning. That introduced me to a lot of that kind of music. The style was popular years before, but a lot of callers would call in and the number of measured listeners tended to be very high on those music nights. They do not do radio like that anymore. Your composition is similar in many ways to what Josh Shpak plays. He is a current young talent that you have mentored well. Thank you for sharing this beautiful musical arrangement from so long ago.🙂😂😁😀😃🎵🎼🎶

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

Thank you so much! The concert where this piece was performed with Bobby Shew and me was in Schoenberg Hall (in the UCLA music building) and, unfortunately, there is no video of it, though I sure wish there was! And yes, I did end up eventually playing it for Stevie years later!

[@jasonburger3533]

@@bigeyezzzzzzz Thank you so much for the information!!! I am glad that Stevie got a chance to hear your composition many years later. It is quite a composition for a 19-year-old and for any age, but especially that young. I wonder if you had a version with lyrics or had considered such and, if so, who might have recorded it or would sing it if you were to take it to that level. I realize that some songs are best as instrumentals only. However, sometimes I have been surprised by songs that are known as instrumental only to find out later on that they had a lyricized version as well. I am curious as to how you came about to compose the song "Stevie's Wonders" as a subject matter of song. It would certainly be splendid with a video, but the audio-only version works wonders.🎶🎼🎵

[@bigeyezzzzzzz]

@jasonburger3533 thank you, but just to clarify, this is not a composition of mine. It is an arrangement of three Stevie Wonder songs. They are his songs that I arranged: All Love Is Fair, Living for the City and Superstition.

[@jasonburger3533]

@@bigeyezzzzzzz Thank you very much for that clarification. I could tell that your arrangement was involved, but as an instrumental, it was not easy for me to detect the portions of the three separate songs that you listed, those being "All In Love Is Fair"; "Living In The City"; and "Superstition", which are some of the earlier work of Stevie Wonder. Your arrangement blended those together into a beautiful piece of music that is a lot for a 19-year-old kid to do and many who are older as well. I am sorry for any of the confusion that I might have caused. The work itself is wonderous as well.🎵🎼🎶