"Steve Winwood Shines A Different Light"

-Dennis Cook

July 2003

 

If you see something that looks like a star
And it's shooting up out of the ground
And your head is spinning from a loud guitar
And you just can't escape from the sound
Don't worry too much, it'll happen to you...

With these words, a low spark sung in a true and beautiful voice, Steve Winwood snared many of us a long time ago. Hindsight and an honest appraisal of their catalog reveal Traffic as the blueprint for much of what’s now known as "jam music." A series of stunning recordings showed an embrace of modal structures and a stylistic spread that embraced everything from English folk forms to psychedelic rawness to swinging, complex jazz figures. Building on the punishing blue pop of his work as a teen in the Spencer Davis Group, the group pursued its own road while still managing to connect with a mass audience. Rare is the person who’s never encountered a band laying into “Dear Mr. Fantasy” or “Gimme Some Lovin’.” Winwood's diverse, exploratory career includes the glimmering moment of Blind Faith, sessions with Hendrix and Muddy Waters, space flights with Stomu Yamash'ta and his smoother, listener friendly solo material of the '80s and '90s.

If any one element distinguishes Winwood’s work, it’s an undisguised passion in everything he’s done. There’s a fire and a sincerity that puts the heat to anything he touches. These qualities have rarely been more apparent than on his new album, About Time. Recorded live in the studio, the Hammond B-3 organ forms the foundation of a thickly smoky sound. Joining Winwood’s Groove-Holmes-on-Spanish-fly keyboards are drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. and guitarist Jose Neto, who bring a Brazilian openness to the proceedings. Karl Denson drops some 100% pure soul out of his sax and flute on several numbers. Slow grooves simmer the flavors to a slinky intensity. A stunning take on Timmy Thomas’ '70s mainstay “Why Can’t We Live Together” finds Winwood in fine voice. His singing throughout possesses of all the charms and strengths of his youth, but now it’s tempered with a resonate maturity. That sense of a life lived rings out in this strong, softly philosophical song cycle. The rumination on the end and the days leading up to it, “Take It To The Final Hour,” ranks with his best work.

Armed with this fresh arsenal of tunes and a cracking good band, Winwood hits the road this summer for a tour that criss-crosses the States. He took time out from the road to tell us a bit about his past efforts and this exciting new phase in his music.

Dennis Cook: About Time sounds terrific LOUD. It fills a room in a really satisfying way. How did you approach the sound on this record?

Steve Winwood: The approach of About Time was to go as far as possible back to traditional recording techniques (no loops or overdubs) with the band playing together in the studio, which though that sounds strangely obvious, many records aren’t made like that anymore. When I did this, I realized that it gave the music a life and vibrancy, hopefully perhaps similar in technique, if not in exact style, to some of my earlier work in Traffic and Blind Faith.

Dennis Cook: The album's title hints at multiple meanings but I wanted to get your take on Time and the role it plays in your music, especially this latest chapter.

Steve Winwood: Time, of course, is at the core of any music and is related to, but not the same as, rhythm. It had also been a while since I'd made a record using these recording techniques.

Could you tell us a bit about your new label, Wincraft Music? Putting out your own records is a significant step for any artist.

I think it is a very exciting time in the industry. The old model needs to change. Many of the old contracts were unjust so hopefully the industry will be evolving into a model, which is in the better interest of the artist. In the computer age that we live in, more music will reach the public and I look forward to seeing what happens. I’ve made the album that I wanted to make. I followed my heart. That was the only rule I made. My label is the result of wanting to nurture this desire in myself and it also allowed me to maintain more creative control, which is important to me.

You've been quoted as saying that you're looking forward to playing more of your repertoire live than ever before on the new tour. I was tickled three shades of pink to see gems like "Pearly Queen" and "I'm A Man" appearing regularly in May shows. Any other less performed material that you plan on breaking out? Any chance we'll get to hear "Forty Thousand Headmen" or "Medicated Goo," two songs that struck me as great jam vehicles for this band?

The setlist will change and so all the shows will be different. There will be songs played from my days with the SDG as well as Traffic, Blind Faith and my solo work. I will not be missing any periods out and think it will be fun to have the variation and give something different to those fans who have seen me many times. I’ll also be including songs that I haven’t played for a very long time, and some I’ve never played. So I suppose we’ll just have to see how each show unfolds.

How does mixing up varied styles of music (Latin, jazz, blues, rock and so on) feed the creative process for you?

Always having been interested in the notion of combining different ethnic styles (which was quite evident in Traffic), on About Time, I’ve perhaps taken this a step further by adding Afro Cuban and Brazilian elements, all of which are rooted in African rhythms but they also contain many European harmonic elements. I also tried to maintain a rock basis combined, of course, with the usual folk and jazz flavors. But I think my main incentive for making About Time was to free myself from all outside marketing, and corporate and demographic influences, and make the record that I truly wanted to make.

Are there any covers of your songs that especially stand out? Guess what I'm really getting at is what goes through your head when you hear someone else singing your words or playing your melodies?

I'm usually fascinated and intrigued by hearing someone else sing my songs. I find it interesting to hear how they phrase and interpret the melody and lyrics. It helps me and often inspires me to develop my own performance techniques.

I have to admit I was a bit shocked to see you onstage with String Cheese Incident last June at Bonnaroo. Once I realized it was you I jumped to my feet and let out a big cheer. It made perfect sense given your history of improvisation and jamming live but was unexpected, to say the least. What do you think of this whole "jam music" scene?

I do identify with jambands, although to my thinking there is nothing new about this. There is probably nothing new about it to The Dead, as they’ve been playing jamband music for a while, too. I’ve been playing this style of music on and off now for many years, and I think that these bands bring to music a free living evolving form that changes each time they play. Traffic’s main intention, as is mine now, is to bring this very expression and give the music a different life each time it’s played. So as such, I guess I might now be considered a jamband. Although the style of my music may differ from many of these bands, I strive to make my music have a different life each day just as they do.

Guitarist Jose Neto has a style that crawls inside your head and stays there. It's both careful and very funky. Drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. is a terrific foil for your music that I've dug since the Traffic tour in 1994. Tell us a bit about your new band.

The core of the new band is a trio comprising of Walfredo, Jose and myself. I have, of course, worked with Wally since 1994 when we reformed Traffic. Jose and I had met about six years ago while he was playing with Airto Morrera and Flora Purim in their band Fourth World. We developed a friendship and had got together on several occasions to write and play. I had played with both Wally and Jose and they also had played together, but the three of us had never played together before this project. In fact, two songs on the album (“Final Hour” and “Silvia”) were recorded on the first day that we had ever played together. On tour we have the talents of Edson “Café” DaSilva from Brazil on percussion and Randall Bramblett from Atlanta on sax and flute.

There's no doubt you've influenced a whole generation of musicians, but one of the pleasures of About Time is the whispers of other artists influencing your music. I hear echoes of vintage War, Hendrix and others. Who did you use as touchstones for this release? And perhaps you could say a few words about who your influences have been over the years.

I have of course been influenced by those you've mentioned, War and Hendrix. But my influences I think have come from many circles, the largest and possibly the most influential being blues, R&B and all its related styles (bebop, bluegrass, rockabilly); people such as Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, Louis Jordon, Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. I have also been influenced over the years by various ethnic styles (Celtic, African and Afro-Caribbean) and its use in folk and jazz styles, and I’m afraid it doesn’t end there. I have also been influenced very early in my life by Anglo-Catholic church music from Tallis and Palestrina, and early basic training in classical music (Stravinsky, Hindemith). All these I think have combined to influence me. Perhaps I could be described as "under the influence."