After the third and final show at Madison Square Garden, Steve and Genia Winwood hosted a special party for friends and family at a New York City pub. In addition to hailing the historic concerts with Eric Clapton, the Winwood family celebrated daughter Mary Clare's birthday as well as Steve's upcoming 60th birthday.
In The Press:
"The founder of Traffic is self-effacing to the point of seeming shy yet is arguably the more talented of the pair, in his own versatile way, playing organ, piano and guitar with elegant and soulful facility. The ghostly atmosphere Winwood generated with his singing throughout much of the show became a hush over the arena audience with his almost-whispered take on Traffic's "No Face No Name No Number," that seemingly ageless voice gently and gracefully traversing the contours of its exquisite melody."
--Doug Collette, All About Jazz [Full Review]
They didn't actually bill themselves as Blind Faith.
But the band that played the Garden Monday night boasted the two most esteemed players from that sanctified '60s act, and they featured its signature material.
While the classic-rock pair in question - Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood teased the world with a quickie warmup set at the Crossroads guitar festival in Chicago last July, they had not shared a stage for an entire evening since the dying days of Blind Faith in 1969.
The two appear again tonight and Thursday with their unnamed band at the Garden. No other dates are scheduled.
When Clapton and Winwood converged in London last week for rehearsals — with an all-star backing band consisting of bassist Willie Weeks, keyboardist Chris Stainton and drummer Ian Thomas — they decided to choose songs from each other’s catalogs to jam on. “There’s some perspective material that’s quite intricate and tricky and has got a lot of stuff going on,” Winwood told Rolling Stone before the gig. “And in some ways it’s best to head for simpler territory and then let the performance take over. Otherwise you spend all your time trying to remember bits and remember parts. So we’ve kind of erred a little bit on the simpler side. There’s a shed-load of material and we don’t have time to do all. We’ve honed it down and kept things that are better and more enjoyable to play.”