Notes From the Great Stevie Wonder Rebellion By Shelah Moody Chapter One: Living for the City

          On Saturday morning, on my way to work, I got off the Muni at Embarcadero station and passed a heartbreaking scene: a man and his dog sleeping on platform. 

 I transferred to the N train and got off 2nd and King and walked through another SF injustice— a makeshift homeless encampment right at the train stop.

      Across the street at Oracle Park, a massive private concert was set up; it was hosted by corporate giants Genentech, featuring a surprise superstar music headliner. 

          My anxiety kicked in. My office was right next door to Oracle Park.   Yet I was locked out of the biggest event in the city. The concert was exclusively for Genentech employees.

          Welcome to San Francisco 2019, a city of great wealth with a hidden core of great poverty.

       In 2018, I’d left San Francisco for New Orleans, but I was lured back with the promise of a well-paying city job and new civic leadership under a young progressive black female mayor, London Breed. I had indeed remembered SF as a fun and beautiful, the innovative city where you could achieve your dreams if you worked hard.

        But upon my return from New Orleans, people in SF seemed younger, unfriendlier, bigger, stronger and faster than I was. I was paying the highest rent I’d ever paid in my life. (I’d even tweeted this fact to #45 when he said he’d done more for African Americans than any other president, but that’s a different dish).

           After 25 years, I was still a struggling writer in San Francisco, floundering in the house that tech built.

          I constantly questioned my self-worth: afraid to let my rich friends know how little I and afraid to let my poor friends know how much I had.

     
I’d returned to SF from New Orleans after being offered a permanent job with the City and County of San Francisco. I was a low-level bureaucrat; I made a decent salary which allowed me to scrape by in the most expensive and expansive city in the country.

      Part of my job was selling parking passes and collecting rents and late fees from SF tenants. I still pursued what I was most passionate about: and reporting about music.

      That day, I committed an outrageous act which I call the great Stevie Wonder Rebellion. Giving it an enigmatic name makes being fired and one step away from homeless myself seem less traumatic, don’t you think? 

        In a way, Stevie Wonder freed me from what could have been a lifetime of frustration and unhappiness.

    So, this is what happened. The day of the Great Stevie Wonder Rebellion, one of our tenants with connections walked into our office and offered us access into the private Genentech concert, featuring none other than Stevie Wonder. 

     Stevie Wonder; an artist I had been chasing since I was 17. For the past two decades, there were times when Stevie Wonder was literally at my fingertips, but I’d never gotten to touch the Motown icon or meet him face to face. In 2016, I even sat right behind Stevie Wonder in the pews when I covered Natalie Cole’s funeral in Los Angeles for Streetwise Radio. In 2014, I sat in the VIP section watching Stevie Wonder soundcheck before the Soul Train Music Awards in Las Vegas, but security kept the press away. In 2015, my friend had been offered backstage passes to see Stevie Wonder at his tribute concert in LA, but she chose to have a meal in a trendy restaurant instead.

       Stevie Wonder was again right at my fingertips. Maybe this was a sign.

       My boss agreed to let us leave the office for a while to catch a few songs from Stevie Wonder and come back. 

       So, our connection escorted us inside of the venue; Oracle Park was transformed into a wonderland of perks for Genentech employees: free food, drink, an abundance of snacks, games and live DJs and other entertainment. 

      But five minutes before Stevie Wonder was scheduled to hit the stage, my boss called us back to the office and told us to come back to work. There would be no Stevie Wonder for me, she said. 

       Now, if you saw the movie, “Color Purple,” starring media mogul Oprah Winfrey, you may recall a scene where the mayor’s maid, Sophia, is given the chance to spend Christmas with her family after an eight-year estrangement. The mayor’s wife drops her off and Sophia revels in the joy and love and comfort of her family. But the mayor’s wife cannot drive home by herself, so she orders Sophia away from her family and back into the car after 15 minutes. That’s how I felt.

        So, back in the office, I pleaded with my boss as Stevie Wonder and his band performed the first rifts of “As if You Read My Mind” from one of my all-time favorite albums, “Hotter than July:” 

    “Take a chance on the secret/That you hide beneath your dreams/Use your wildest imagination/You just tell me what it is and I will make it be…”

    I could feel the bass, drums, and synthesizer in my feet. I snapped. My pleading with my boss turned into an argument, and then harsh words. I called her boss and said more harsh words and eventually, I got my way, strolling back into the concert in my sassy red sunglasses. 

       Thanks to my connection, I was able to stand right on the stage and watch one of the greatest singer/songwriters of all time perform hits such as “Master Blaster,” “Living for the City,” Higher Ground,” “Overjoyed,” “Signed Sealed Delivered,” “Superstition,” “Don’t You Worry Bout a Thing” and “You are the Sunshine of My Life” up close and personal. Stevie’s setlist was prophetic, and my

connection grabbed it off a speaker and squirreled it away after the show. I was as scared and elated at the same time. This was my greatest act of rebellion, ever.

Streetwise Radio Touring Musician Spotlight: Scott “Scojo” Johnson By Shelah Moody

Sax player Scott “ScoJo” Johnson is one of the gems I discovered during my stay in New Orleans last year.  Johnson is arguably one of the most studious and hard-working musicians in Crescent City. In one season, I saw Johnson gig with Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazzfest) and Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, freelance at the Spotted Cat on Frenchmen Street and accompany flutist Nikia Russell at the Ellis Marsalis Center for Music in the Ninth Ward. I recently caught up with the cool southern gentleman for a brief talk on music. Check out a clip of ScoJo performing:       

https://youtu.be/YNk1JghCk8M

Streetwise Radio:  Where are you from originally, and what drew you to New Orleans?

Johnson: I’m originally from Jackson, MS. I taught marching band for several years after I graduated from college at the University of Southern Mississippi. I only got a chance to gig two times every three months. Needless to say, I wasn’t happy with that. I saw an Alan Watts video that was basically asking what you would do for a living if money were not an object. I quit the next day after I saw that video, and moved to New Orleans. I,  along with all of my friends, would visit New Orleans all the time, so I knew what the music scene was like. It seemed like any time of day, seven days a week, there was something great going on as far as music goes. I came here because I felt like I could have a chance to play as little or as much as I wanted to. 

Streetwise Radio: What drew you to the sax and how many instruments do you play?

Johnson: In elementary school, all of the fourth and fifth graders were required to play the recorder. The fingering for the recorder is extremely similar to the saxophone. I auditioned for a performing arts school on the recorder. After I made it into the school, the instrumental instructor started me on saxophone because of the similar fingerings. Clarinet and flute have similar fingers to the sax, so I play those also. I also play the piano/keyboard. 

Streetwise Radio: Music wise, what projects are you working on now?

Johnson: I’m currently working on an endorsement deal with a saxophone company. I can’t name the company until they give me the green light (and this is assuming that I get the endorsement). I’m also writing music again. Ideally, I would like to have an album completed by the fall of 2020. 

Streetwise Radio: Describe your favorite festival experience of all time.

Johnson: I perform with Delfeayo Marsalis’ Uptown Jazz Orchestra. We recently had a performance in Connecticut at the Greater Hartford Festival of Jazz. I think that was my favorite festival that I’ve performed at so far. Even the visual ascetics were unreal. To look into the crowd of hundreds of people sitting on the grass having the time of their lives... unbelievable. 

Streetwise Radio: What pop song would you like to redo in jazz?

Johnson: I’ve arranged several pop tunes in the style of jazz. My favorite one that I’ve done is actually a rock tune called  “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden. 

Streetwise Radio: So, what do jazz musicians like yourself do when hurricanes hit NOLA?

Johnson: During Hurricane Barry, the shows go on! If the venue is still open, we show up to play!!

Catch Scott “ScoJo” Johnson live on tour with Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Jazz Orchestra, and every Wednesday night with the Orchestra at Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, snugjazz.com.