It’s no superstition: DJs playing only Stevie Wonder in salute

By Sarah Feldberg

Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 | 2 a.m.

This is not your ordinary pool party.

The schedule starts with a question-and-answer session with New York-based DJs Spinna and Bobbito. Then, it’s six hours of nonstop music, all of it from Stevie Wonder.

DJ Spinna (Vincent Williams) put together the first tribute — a show honoring Wonder’s 1976 album, “Songs in the Key of Life” — on New York City’s Lower East Side in 1999.

“It was the biggest turnout the venue had ever seen,” event co-creator and producer Keita P. Williams recalls.

Its success spawned the larger tribute, “WONDER-Full,” which mines Wonder’s entire catalog. This show has spent the past decade traveling the world. It’s played New York and Los Angeles and made stops in Japan, England and Holland.

“He’s major in Japan,” Williams says, laughing. “They speak the language of music, and the lyrics — they were singing along.”

Six hours may sound like a long time to hear music from any one artist, but Williams assures that the alternating sets from Spinna and Bobbito (born Robert Garcia) are anything but repetitive.

“It’s all Stevie Wonder — rare albums, rare cuts, covers, remixes,” she explains. “You’re being educated about Stevie’s catalog of music that he’s recorded with other artists, samples, a lot of hip-hop samples. You have to have a great ear to know that it’s Stevie’s music.”

Of course, there’s one man who would likely recognize every track — Stevie Wonder. Last year the 59-year-old singer-songwriter actually showed up at a “WONDER-Full” event and performed for the enthusiastic crowd and equally surprised DJs.

“It was mayhem,” Williams says. “The seas parted — the seas of people from the back as he was walking in. The DJs were all the way up on stage not knowing what was happening until he got closer. They lost their minds.”

Keeping Wonder fresh in people’s minds is ultimately what the entire production is about; that and paying tribute to an artist who helped shaped R&B and soul into what they are today.

“If your name is not in the lights, no one knows you,” Williams laments. It’s important “to honor all great artists not only when they’re gone, but when they’re here, too.”