The Jazz Soul of Little Stevie

The album showcases the 12-year-old Wonder's talents as a composer and instrumentalist. As with Eivets Rednow Wonder doesn't sing at all on this album, he only plays percussion, the keyboards, and the harmonica. Clarence Paul and Henry Cosby wrote and produced most of the album, though Wonder co-wrote two tunes. The original studio version of "Fingertips" is included on the album; a live version would become Wonder's first hit single.^[4]

Bruce Eder of Allmusic praised the album saying, "Stevie Wonder's debut album, released when he was 11, is still an amazing musical document, showcasing his skills as a percussionist (drums and bongos), chromatic harmonica player, keyboardist (piano and organ), and composer -- and he was prodigious in all four categories. All of these skills are highlighted throughout this record, and Wonder's youthful, exuberant voice had a maturity suggesting that greatness was around the corner...What's more, a lot of what's here is extremely sophisticated instrumental music for its time, and the "jazz" reference in the title is not a matter of optimistic convenience or self-aggrandizement—a lot of this is legitimate jazz."^[1]