The Innervisions album by Stevie Wonder is among the greatest masterpieces of music history, comparable in scope and substance to the finest symphony and raga recordings, released when Wonder was only 23. One might easily write an entire book about this miraculous music.

Attending a star-studded reception for Quincy Jones in Pasadena during the autumn of 1997, Stevie was standing nearby at one point, but I regretfully didn't have a chance to actually meet him. It was fascinating speaking at length with Altovise Davis, the widow of Sammy Davis Jr.

When I discovered Innervisions in the late seventies, there was a simultaneous immersion into Kindertotenlieder, Das Lied von der Erde, Songs of A Wayfarer, Symphony No. 4 and Symphony No. 9 by Gustav Mahler, a most potent and unforgettable pairing. There is no other music I recall listening to at that moment in time beyond these two!

It was an honor being included with Stevie Wonder on a select multi-genre discography of artists who use music technology.

While I didn't speak with Quincy Jones at the Pasadena reception, I did earlier meet him at a private Los Angeles restaurant party celebrating the fiftieth birthday of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in April of 1997 where Harold Land performed with other jazz luminaries, my knowing his playing from legendary Clifford Brown recordings. At the Jazz Bakery in 2007, where Benny Golson was featured, I spoke with Quincy at some length during intermission, him encouragingly exclaiming as we parted, "You got it!"

There is no better description of music composition and improvisation than the word innervisions.

- Michael Robinson, June 2022, Los Angeles

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Michael Robinson is a Los Angeles-based composer and musicologist. His 177 albums include 151 albums for meruvina and 26 albums of piano improvisations. Robinson has been a lecturer at UCLA, Bard College and California State University.