Wonder, who says he chose his pseudo surname from a sign for a ski equipment store long before he ever heard of Stevie Wonder -- and went blind long after-- is considered a "rare soul legend" by those in the soul music know.

As a singer and songwriter, he was a rising star in the'60s when he was living in Detroit. He even cut a few records. He wrote and recorded "Under the Moon" and "So Upset," and performed in clubs all over the place.
Then his life went off in a dozen directions. Here's a partial resume: He's been a bellhop. A TV cameraman. Worked in magazine distribution. Owned his own printing business in Oakland. Studied music and graphic arts. Drove a cab. And he was even one of the florist delivery people in Hollywood who took orchids to Marilyn Monroe's crypt each week for Joe DiMaggio.
He found out he had glaucoma in 1972, but his condition stayed stable until about 1990. "Then around '99 it went completely out," Wonder said. "That's when I started getting back into writing music."

So now, thanks to help from programs at the Orientation Center for the Blind and the Center for Independent Living, Wonder has learned how to use a special "talking" computer, gotten some new keyboards and put together a CD called "Tell Me So!

This past weekend, he performed at the Los Angeles Classic Soul Festival at the Wilshire Grand Hotel. And he even has a burgeoning fan club in England, of all places, where old soul from the 1960s has taken on new life in a movement called "northern soul."

"Northern soul is all about dancing to obscure U.S. recorded soul from the'60s and '70s," said Kev Roberts, author of a book on the subject and organizerof the Los Angeles trip. "Basically, Rufus Wonder recorded the song 'Under the Moon' in 1966, which is sought after here in thisunusual but vibrant music scene." Wonder says he didn't even know about these fans until he recently did an Internet search on his name "and all this U.K. stuff came up," Wonder said. "It's been kind of fun."

His real name is Mathew Breckenridge. Or Arthur Lee Harris, depending on which branch of the family you talk to. But neither of those sounded like a showbiz name anyway, so he eventually went with his father's first name, Rufus, and added on Wonder.

He was born in Louisiana and raised by his great aunt and uncle, who taught him "never to give up on anything you do," he said. Wonder started singing as a little kid -- in church, vaudeville shows and little theater groups. He and his aunt moved to Oakland when he was 12 and he went on to Fresno for high school. He joined the Navy and formed a shipboard singing group called The Blenders on the USS Badoeng Strait aircraft carrier. The little combo performed in Japan and in the South Pacific and even had a 15-minute TV show once a week aboard the ship.

When he got out of the service in the mid-1960s, he joined a band or two and finally made his way to Chicago and Detroit, working the club circuit. Then, he wrote "Under the Moon" and recorded it as Rufus Wonder and the Additions.

For whatever reason -- he has theories about Motown squelching his airplay -- he didn't make any money on it, and decided to leave town. "It was all different back then," he said. "You had to be with a big record company or nothing. Now you can do your own thing. I've started my own record label called Oh! O'Star Records. This way you stay true to yourself and you're not just sitting back waiting for someone else to do something." Wonder is indeed a practical man. That's why he always "diversified" his career, he said. Just in case the music didn't work out. After his various stints in Hollywood, he went back to school and studied music and graphic arts. Then he owned his own printing business in downtown Oakland, which he closed in 1996 when his sight began to fail. "Knowing I was going blind, I started doing things to prepare myself," he said. "I learned how to use a cane correctly. I got trained to use my reader program on my computer."

He says his blindness has quite literally helped him as a musician. "There can be a whole lot of noise in a neighborhood and things going on, cars going by. But if you stop and really listen, you can hear that individual fight between a couple way down the block," he said. "In music, it's the same thing. There's a lot going on, but if you listen carefully, you can pick out and really hear the horn, focus on the individual instruments. Since I've been blind, I've been paying more close attention to that, and I think it's helped my music."

Now I am back in the entertainment business, I have started my own Record Label, and publishing company, Oh! O'Star Records, & LACAILMI Publishing.

"Rufus Wonder "
"Soul legend Rufus Wonder makes music once again"
Oakland Tribune, Mar 15, 2004 by Angela Hill, STAFF WRITER

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