Winwood Sound Wins Through

Rip It Up, Issue 5, 1 October 1977, Page 11

Winwood Sound Wins Through

Peter Thomson

Steve Winwood Island I guess I am biased because I have always liked Steve Winwood, right since his teenage days with the Spencer Davis Group. Basically it’s his distinctive sound that appeals so much that blend of rhythm and blues, jazz influences, rock, and 60s soul. His singing convincingly employs the phrasing, pitch and timbre of black vocal styles, wedded to white rock. Furthermore his prowess extends to keyboards and guitar. Throughout his career Winwood has usually shown a solid sense of accepting his technical limitations, working within a scope that paradoxically has allowed him to expand his musical horizons. If Blind Faith was never more than the bare bones of a very promising group, some of Traffic's best moments are supreme examples of rock’s greatness as an eclectic musical form.

Apart from the mixed success of Stomu Yamashta’s Go last year, this album represents Winwood's first re-corded work since Traffic folded three years ago. It is also his first solo L.P. (although the Traffic classic John Barleycorn was originally in-

tended as such). On one track Winwood plays all instruments, while on the other five he handles vocals, assorted keyboards and virtually all His musical sense is consistently sound. The arrangements are impressive, his soloing sure, and the vocals as warm as ever.

Bass and drums are respectively supplied by the famed soul duo, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark (Remember Bowie's Young Americans). They are something of a mixed blessing. To their credit they provide the buoyant, flowing pulse behind Winwood that he needs. Traffic's rhythm section had become stodgy towards the end, often clogging up the songs till they sounded static. Weeks and Newmark move. (Listen to Traffic’s Where the Eagle Flies and this L.P. back to back. The difference is obvious.) In providing this rhythmic lift however, the duo do tend to sound a mite formulaic, particularly behind Winwood’s instrumental solos where they don’t seem to be listening too hard. It suggests either a lack of musical commitment or, perhaps, that the rhythm tracks were recorded at an earlier date than the rest.

Ironically, the most sympathetic drumming is on a track not using Newmark, viz "Vacant Chair”.

None of the material is in itself particularly notable; after playing the record constantly for a week I can remember only melodic fragments rather than tunes. This is not an adverse criticism however because they admirably succeed in their purpose as a vehicle for Winwood s stimulating musical gifts. The numbers are all at least co-written by Winwood; his lyricist is usually ex-Traffic-controller Jim Capaldi and in one instance that bizarre gent Viv Stanshall. Capaldi’s words are overambitious and quite forgetable, so don’t strain for them; simply enjoy the rich emotive singing. Finally, as expected, it is the Winwood sound that makes this album the success it is. In a musical field particularly prone to fashion be it disco, punk, or whatever Winwood eschews current whims and has made an album that is at once up-to-date, yet reaffirms his original musical values. To me, this record is a propitious omen that Steve Weinwood is still a vital musical force. Welcome back.