This was one of the first albums of Stevie’s I heard from start to finish. Mom would play it in the car while driving me to piano lessons.

From listening to this album I learned a lot about improvisation in extended vamps in songs like “Love’s In Need…,” “Joy Inside My Tears,” and “As” with Herbie Hancock on lead Rhodes piano.

I remember the first time I met Stevie. I was nine, and he sang the first verse of “As” into my cassette recorder. At that time, I had only heard an instrumental flute version of the song by Najee on the radio. Later, back at home, my Dad put on the fourth side of the vinyl, and I just enjoyed listening to all the subtleties and vocal variations Stevie brought throughout the extended vamp. Then when it went to “Another Star,” dad told me about a flute solo at the end of the song. I remember wanting to listen to the full album after that!

I also love how the album includes the sounds of reality in the background, particularly in “Isn’t She Lovely,” and “Saturn.” I also learned a lot about chord sequences, as well as the way he expresses lyrical themes.

I was amazed at how Stevie created realistic sounding strings through the synths he was using at the time in songs like “Village Ghetto Land,” and “Pastime Paradise.” He used the strings in his next album also, the more experimental Secret Life Of Plants. This was well before the era of sample libraries like the Vienna Symphonic libraries or the East West series which I use to create my own orchestrations.