Photo Wes Orshoski

As Stevie Wonder walked onstage with his daughter, singer Aisha Morris, to open the show, he spoke about the 2006 passing of his mother Lulu Mae Hardaway—how her death led to his reinvigorated spirit after he initially had canceled all performances. As the grief-stricken performer told his manager, “We have to make the impossible possible.” And so he did on his first American tour in ten years, “A Wonder Autumn Night,” which extended into December, with Glendale serving as the last night on the tour.

Wonder’s voice shows no signs of age after a 45-year career that began at the age of 12 with his chart-topping single, “Fingertips–Part 2.” A superb backing group supported his ability to play timeless songs on keyboards and harmonica, including an opening duet with his daughter on “Love’s In Need of Love Today.”

As Stevie Wonder walked onstage with his daughter, singer Aisha Morris, to open the show, he spoke about the 2006 passing of his mother Lulu Mae Hardaway—how her death led to his reinvigorated spirit after he initially had canceled all performances. As the grief-stricken performer told his manager, “We have to make the impossible possible.” And so he did on his first American tour in ten years, “A Wonder Autumn Night,” which extended into December, with Glendale serving as the last night on the tour.

Wonder’s voice shows no signs of age after a 45-year career that began at the age of 12 with his chart-topping single, “Fingertips–Part 2.” A superb backing group supported his ability to play timeless songs on keyboards and harmonica, including an opening duet with his daughter on “Love’s In Need of Love Today.”

The icon then offered a call for America to become a United People and roared into the politically-charged duo of “Visions” and “Living for the City” before shifting onto “Higher Ground.” A down-tempo “Ribbon in the Sky” segued into an impressive Wonder piano solo with a few bars of “Days of Wine & Roses” before an exquisite “Send One Your Love.” Expertly balancing new tunes, ballads and dance classics, he delivered with confidence on “Master Blaster (Jammin’),” “If You Really Love Me,” “Sir Duke” and the funk masterpiece, “Superstition.”

He even got up and danced, singing James Brown’s “Say It Loud—I’m Black and I’m Proud” with a call for others to sing “I’m White and I’m Proud,” with an equal sense of conviction. And Wonder was good to his initial word, uniting the crowd into a mini-version of an ideal America. To strike the point home, the band kicked into “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours”—a song he co-wrote with his late mother in 1970—and Wonder guided them into the classic tune, a jazz take on the song, then a country version and, finally, back into the traditional reading, for a journey that covered just about everyone in the house.