![]() ![]() Aside from writing the music, Winwood sang the powerful vocals and laid down the bass and rhythm guitar and Hammond organ parts, something Schubert and Shostakovich could certainly never have pulled off! There’s the haunting No Face, No Name, No Number the Winwood showpiece Shanghai Noodle Factory (another personal fave) with overdubbed vocals, organ, and acoustic and bass guitars and the wonderfully eerie 40,000 Headmen, a three-minute art song on a par with Schubert or Shostakovich. The band decamped from London to Berkshire, where they settled into a rural cottage to write and arrange the songs that ultimately appeared on Traffic’s first three albums. Winwood played piano, organ, harpsichord and lead, rhythm and bass guitars Chris Wood handled tenor sax, flute and occasional keyboards Dave Mason performed on guitar and sitar and lyricist Jim Capaldi banged away on the drum kit and other percussion instruments. On the eve of SDG’s first American tour, Winwood quit the band, explaining simply, “I didn’t want to continue playing and singing songs that were derivative of American R&B.” In its wake he formed Traffic, a four-piece progressive rock ensemble that with overdubbing could sound like a small orchestra. Note the razor-sharp rhythms to which you could set an atomic clock and Winwood’s Hammond solo starting at 1:35. Seventeen years old, what a legend this man.” ( Here’s a 2020 version demonstrating his pipes and organ chops are still wholly intact.) Another Winwood hit for the Spencer Davis Group, their last, was I’m a Man, captured live in a torrid big band session for VH-1 television in 1997. This YouTube comment got it right: “The SOUL in his voice, and at such a young age he had so much vocal power. ![]() A year later Winwood wrote the SDG’s breakout hit, Gimme Some Lovin.’ On this clip, filmed live in 1967 on Finnish TV, you can hear the teenage Winwood’s hair-raising vocals and fiery Hammond B3 organ. With the Spencer Davis Group, the young Winwood showed why: he sang lead vocals and played keyboards and guitar on their four studio albums, knocking the Beatles off the top of the English pop charts with this spirited Jackie Edwards’ number in 1966. On his 1965 English tour Bob Dylan expressed amazement at Winwood’s preternaturally soulful voice, and Dylan’s pianist Al Kooper described him in a 1968 Rolling Stone article as a “calm, shy superfreak,” a musical force of nature. Around the same time he was “discovered” by Birmingham bandleader Spencer Davis, who later said he was astonished to find “this kid playing piano like Oscar Peterson and singing like Ray Charles.”ĭavis wasn’t the only one. At nine years old he played piano in his father’s jazz band and as a teen was backing visiting American blues icons such as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson. Winwood grew up in Birmingham, England, a prodigy in a family of musicians. Goofy video notwithstanding, it is a tour de force performance that has to be seen to be believed.Īnd somewhere in between is this plaintive mid-tempo number from his first solo album released in 1977, with sinuous synth lines, beautifully measured intervals of seconds and fifths and a lovely guitar solo (a la Miles Davis) at the fade on “Hold On.” Spencer Davis Group and Traffic There’s the song’s classical structure, built on ascending and descending semi-tones and repeated three-note beats, and the seamless chord changes and organ playing that combines the bluesiness of American soul master Jimmy Smith with the melodic richness of Franz Schubert.Īt the other end of the spectrum is Night Train from 1980, a fiery Concerto in D Minor for Guitar, Keyboards and Vocals, in which, astonishingly, Winwood performs every instrument. ![]() There’s his overdubbed bass and lead guitar lines. First is Winwood’s rich vocals with its two-octave range, from tenor falsetto to bass, and his wonderfully jazzy organ playing. Just three minutes long, there’s plenty to admire. It’s an obscure but deliciously upbeat number from 1968: More than half a century ago this was the gateway song that first led me to his music, for which I still have an insane attachment. ![]() So let’s rectify your ignorance of Stephen Lawrence Winwood right now! Herewith a number of my favorite compositions that hopefully will give you some appreciation – new or renewed – for his genius. ![]()
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