Steve Winwood
Steve Winwood

THE REVIEW

We are faced with one of the giants of Rock Music, and I think it's necessary to review his first solo work. Steve Winwood leaves his creation Traffic in 1974, effectively marking its end, but he takes a while to rearrange his musical ideas, "distracted" by the excellent experience with Stomu Yamashta. He returns to the blues and produces in 1977 the self-titled album, consisting of only 6 tracks and "short" even for the golden era of vinyl: 37 minutes and counting.

After such a career, expectations were certainly high, and those who expected a masterpiece were disappointed because "Steve Winwood" is not one. Even the artist was quite disappointed, as commercially his work did not achieve great results, almost certainly due to the lack of a hit worthy of the name. Nonetheless, he did not become discouraged, releasing "Arc of a Diver" three years later, which indeed is a masterpiece.

Going back to "Steve Winwood," I believe it is certainly a good album, without peaks but decent in every track starting with "Hold On," well-paced and co-written with the old companion in adventures Jim Capaldi. It is characterized by the classic Traffic-like "suspensions" and Steve's skillful use of the Hammond, which is the backbone of every subsequent track, like the excellent and engaging "Time is Running Out": probably the best track thanks also to Jim Capaldi's contribution on drums and, why not, the first wife Nicole, both components of the rhythmic lead chorus. Then it moves to the autarchical "Midland Maniac," a seductive track entirely realized by Steve, showcasing his undeniable musician qualities by working with keyboards and guitars, even with percussion (real, not synthesized!). Maybe he also wanted to save on musical contributions, but it must be admitted that the result doesn't suffer much from it.

Then we return to the classic five-piece formation by turning the LP to side "B" where we find a pleasant "Vacant Chair," a classic "Blue-eyed" soul indicating a purely Anglo-Saxon or "White" matrix, giving way to the unmistakable Hammond opening "Luck's In," vaguely reminiscent of some passages of Gentle Giant, to then immediately return to the rock canons of Traffic, always supported on keyboards by the author, very well accompanied on drums by Andy Newmark, whose qualities were later noticed also by David Gilmour. Unfortunately, the finale of "Let Me Make Something in Your Life" is weak, with Steve's melody decidedly too sweet and inevitably lowering the average of an album that is easy for me to judge and that I consider interesting for fans of Traffic and Winwood, but nothing more.